After the river rafting, we drove to Lone Pine (on the 395) on the eastern Sierras. We camped the night at a campground near Lone Pine. In the morning, the entire party separated with the older young men hiking up Mount Whiney and the other hiking up to Cottonwoods Lakes - south of Whitney. The Cottonwood group was comprised of (by order of the picture below) Trent, Sam, Clark, Jarrod, Jordan and Adam with Josh and Rick as leaders.
The trail begins
Be had to navigate some switchbacks.
Once we crested the trail, we came upon a beautiful meadow. A few of them began singing "The Hill are Alive" from the Sound of Music. It was very beautiful. Very green with various colors of wild flowers.
This is the west shore of #3 of the 5 Cottonswood Lakes. If you look closely, you can see a waterfall in the green area and the trail just to the right.
This is where we set up camp. It is between Cottonwood Lake #4 and 5. There is some blue sky in the background but just as we got our tents up, it began to rain. It lasted about 2 hours.
Once the rain let up, some fished and some explored the area.
This is a view of Lakes 4 & 5. The 2 little dots on this side of the #4 lake at some of our young men.
This tree was leaning against this boulder making a easy climb.
This looking to the east. The lake is #2. You can see there is snow left over even at this level.
Lake #2 on the left with #3 on the right.
Josh jumped from the rock to the snow. Adam followed.
Though the water is crystal clear, drinking it directly can make you very sick. We had to pumped all our drinking water through a filter. Everyone took turns. This was mine.
Another snow field.
