Little Lakes Valley from Mount Starr

📍 Inyo National Forest, California

The Story

Compared to the rugged and steep trails I'm accustomed to in the Adirondacks, the Mono Pass trail is very well defined, smooth, and forgivingly graded. That makes the approach to the base of Mount Starr a fast and easy-going one. On the way up to Mono Pass, I was actually passed by a mule train that had some "not so eager" mules in the back of the line. This presented me with some moments to catch my breath in this high altitude trail. I knew going into this hike that there would be a "choose your own path" situation up Mount Starr, so when I hit the base of Mount Starr I began studying the mountain to find any social trails and any potential lines up. I saw quite a few potential ways up, and decided at first to deviate from my GPX track to choose the most obvious social trail I saw. At first, I had to cross a brief but knee high post-hole ridden snow field, paying very careful attention to each and every step to avoid spraining my knee or ankle. Once I made it across, I took the most obvious social trail up steep scree and followed whatever hint of a trail I could detect. I rather quickly climbed about 400 vertical feet on this class 1 scree until the terrain became mostly class 2 with boulder obstacles to work around the remainder of the way up. Every now and then I could see brief social trails that let me know I was not the only one to have taken this path before. At the summit, I was rewarded with tremendous 360 views of the High Sierra, not only down into Mono Pass, but the entire Little Lakes Valley. Rather than continuing along the ridgeline which would have been a tedious slow-going boulder ridden task, I opted to speed back down the way I came, which I was able to do in about 1/3 the time it took me to go up. Fun!

Location Details

Trail: Mono Pass Trail
Feature: Little Lakes Valley

Conditions

Features: Alpine Lakes,Snow-Capped Peaks,Granite Ridges
Terrain: Talus,Granite Blocks,Rocky Outcroppings
Atmosphere: Partly Cloudy,High Visibility
Time Of Day: Midday

Technical Specs

Body: Nikon Z 9
Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S
Settings: ƒ/8 | 1/250s | ISO 64 | 24mm
Resolution: 23136 x 7290 px (168.7 MP)
Date Taken: Jul 2026 (Summer)

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