Garnet Lake Backpacking Loop Pt. I // Mammoth Lakes California

August backpacking trip to Garnet Lake in the eastern sierras with our Golden Retriever.

Shadow Lake To Garnet Lake Loop on AllTrails
https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec...

We drove into Mammoth Lakes CA on a Thursday in late August from the Bay Area. We spent that day enjoying Mammoth & acclimating to the high elevation. For lodging, we stayed at the Mammoth Mountain Inn which was extremely convenient & dog friendly.

On Friday we drove to the the trailhead at Agnew Meadows at 6:30am to avoid the shuttle and hit the trail by 7am. Day 1 of the hike was not too strenuous on paper, but was tough as we were not yet fully acclimated. Our Golden Retriever did well in the shade, but went very slow in exposed sun sections. We ended up camping above Shadow Creek just before the Ediza Lake trail spur.

On Saturday we intended to go to Thousand Island Lake. However, dehydration & elevation was impacting my girlfriend/hiking partner significantly and we heard several tales that this lake was way too overcrowded. We opted to take things slow & camp at Garnet Lake instead. This ended up being an amazing decision, as we saw few people with great campsites.

On Sunday we hiked out on the River Trail, using a small connector trail at the base of Garnet. This was a rough trail and I wouldn’t recommend going up, especially with animals. We made it back to the trailhead around 2pm and celebrated with beers at Mammoth Lakes Brewing.