Monday, July 23. Driving up. I had lunch at the Dorabelle Picnic Area on Shaver Lake. There's a fair amount of smoke haze in the air from the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite. Not that that's stopping any of the action on the lake. The good news is that I will be driving south from here, away from the smoke.

I stopped here along the way. Something over 200 big trees. It is the southernmost of the eight "northern" groves, the ones not in the main cluster of big trees in the drainages of S. Fork of the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers. (The eight: Placer Co., N and S Calavaras, 3 in Yosemite, Nelder, and this.) _

This giant sequoia has feet, or at least paws.

Rhododendron occidentale (western azalea). Just a few of these were still out along a little creek that runs by the grove.

Next, a short excursion down by the Wishon Reservoir before heading up to Courtright. No smoke here. (I drove to the Crown Valley trailhead too, my start for a trip back in 1983. Nothing really scenic or exciting.)

On to Courtright Reservoir. The view from camp. Left center is Maxson Dome. The lone dome at the right is Voyager Rock, which attracts lots of climbers. While the clouds look impressive, and I heard one very distant rumble, there was no rain.

Site 9 at the Marmot Rock Campground on Courtright Reservoir. Maxson Dome Rock behind.

A view down Helms Creek from near the Courtright Reservoir Dam.

Near sunset on the Courtright Reservoir.

Tuesday, July 24. On the trail. After a short connector from the parking lot, the route joins the Dusy-Ershim OHV Route for a mile or so. It looks like a back road here but I gather farther on it's one of more gnarly OHV routes out there. I saw no vehicles.

Off the road and on to the regular trail. Some lower spots have boardwalk. I criss-crossed with this couple a few times today.

Perideridia parishii (Parish's yampah) filled some of the wet spots around those walkways. Senecio in the background.

Horkelia fusca (dusky horkelia) is my best guess, based partially on the flowers ...

Horkelia fusca (dusky horkelia) is my best guess ... based even more on the leaves.

Ligusticum grayi (Gray's lovage) maybe, but lots of uncertainly on the identification. This is a larger member of Apiaceae, but I'm struggling a bit to match those flower heads with the leaves.

Just a few Kelly's lilies here, but I saw more as the day progressed (and throughout the hike up to 10,000' or so). More mature leaves of that Apiaceae member.

Helenium bigelovii (Bigelow's sneezeweed) out here too, with yampah and and aster (and lodgepole pine).

Today's trail climbs up to the saddle separating the Helms creek and Post Corral Creek drainages and then back down. Open lodgepole forest up top. Away from the wetter bottom lands, a lot of today's forest looked like this.

Down to Long Valley.

Erythranthe primuloides (primrose monkeyflower). Flower markings and leaf veining support the identification.

Post Corral Creek near the trail crossing and camp. _

Camp near the Post Corral Creek crossing.

Wednesday, July 25. Today began with a mostly forested climb. The moister spots could be quite flowery.

At the top of the first big climb. Open pluton here.

Finally up to Fleming Lake. Water was in scarce supply from Post Corral Creek for the the five miles up here. Plenty of water from here on. (An expanded panorama-viewer version of this picture is at the end of the gallery.)