Mono Pass
Our flight to Reno was delayed 10 hours, so we didn’t make it to Mammoth Lakes the night before our first hike as planned. We got in late and stayed the night at a hotel in downtown Reno (never again!). The next morning, we had a 3 hour drive to the Eastern Sierras, so we opted for an easier first day hike. We chose Mono Pass, from Mosquito Flats trailhead.
We were familiar with Mosquito Flats, having hiked Little Lakes Valley two years before. The trailhead is one of the highest in the Sierras, at over 10,000 feet, offering easy access to the high alpine. Mono Pass shares a trail with Little Lakes for the first half mile, and then ascends to the northwest toward the pass.
The trail had great long range views of Little Lakes Valley as we gained elevation. We then passed ruby lake and reached tree line. Mono Pass is unique in this area due to its stark, sandy, Mars-like terrain and its singular, seemingly out-of-place oasis, Summit Lake. The pass and lake were the best part of this hike. We spent over 30 minutes at the lake, enjoying the reflections of the sky and adjacent mountains. I hiked a bit further to a lookout over Pioneer Basin to get a view of the lakes and colorful mountains. On our return, it was cloudy, yielding a different appearance of the desert topography.
Our hike was 10 miles and 2400 ft of vert, but we got up to 12,100 ft at the pass. The hike took us four and a half hours, and we were able to do it having stayed over 3 hours away the night before. This hike is beautiful, with diverse terrain, and, in our opinion, offers one of the best return on investment of effort of any trail we’ve done in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
