Today we hiked the Crystal Lake Trail in The Eastern Sierra,
with a brave friend who led the way and cut in front on high altitude precipices!
We climbed 1,000 vertical feet starting at a base of 8900 ft,
passing many pristine alpine lakes,
and making a few nice friends en-route!
Tomorrow we go higher starting at a base of 9,900 ft and heading up into Tioga Pass, land of no wifi, so I will hopefully be back in touch the day after tomorrow.
Cheers to you from the high Sierras~
Such gorgeous vistas. Have a wonderful and safe hike tomorrow!
Thank much and hoping we do! Cheers to you~
Magnificent!
The Sierras truly are!
Yep. That’s a great hike. I love Tuolumne Meadows too.
Yep, I do too and we are heading there as well~
The colors are so vibrant I feel I could step into this gorgeous scenery. Cindy, thank you for sharing this trip and starting my evening dreaming, just before my eyes close. <3
Sweet dreams and sleep well dear Robin~
Thank you and hope you have a peaceful, restful sleep, Cindy.
😴
Wao!!! Amazing pics!!!
Thank you so much & cheers to you~
Fantastic
Ah, thank you very much~
Some hike!!!
Wonderful photos – 😉
It starts getting pristine and beautiful as you get higher~
Oh wish I was there – but u give us a nice taste
I am so happy you are traveling with me~
It’s so clean and gorgeous out there, wow! I can just about smell the fresh air from viewing these images. And your brave guide seems to be doing a great job of showing you around. Enjoy yourself Cindy! Cheers! <3
This Australian Cattle dog clearly doubles as a Himalayan sherpa dog-assistant, or at least I am sure he could! He was amazing! 🐶
Fantastic scenery, Cindy. It seems your dog friend is getting in touch with his ancient wolf blood. Great post. 🙂 — Suzanne
He was sooooo happy! I think he was being protective getting in front on steep drops. So sweet~
Lovely! Enjoy. X
Much appreciated. Thank you!
How lovely of you! Thank you~
Wow!
Thank you and LOVE that word!
Muchas gracias!
Take care of yourself up there! 🙂 It looks wonderful, Cindy. Can I ‘pinch’ it for my Monday walks?
Come on over! Next we are going to the old ghost town of Bodie!
oh always very beautiful
Have a nice day Cindy
Thank you for your lovely comment and be well my friend~
oh you’re very welcome
Kisses
Wow! That is all 🙂
That is more then enough! Thank you~
Have fun Cindy. 🙂
Thank you Ranu! We are leaving in about an hour~
What a great colours… what a beautiful blue… Thank you, have a nice day, Love, nia
Visa versa 2 U X 2! <3
WOW, WOW, WOW – BREATHTAKING, Cindy – Joy to the world this one 🙂
All the joy possible to you my dear friend~ 😂
<3
Incredible! Wow for sure!
Love your words! Thank you~
Beautiful landscape Cindy.
Thanks so much Bob and take good care~
Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
Wow.. absolutely stunning.. Cindy Knoke with a canine guide to spectacular views.. please head over and see all the post and comment there.. thanks Sally
I am so grateful for a lovely friend like you Sally! <3 <3
The feeling is mutual Cindy.. xxx
What gorgeous photos. I love hiking the Sierras. On one hike, I met a chipmunk who managed to wheedle all the nuts out of my trail mix 🙂
Laughing……that’s why they are so chubby! 🐿🐿
I pray no one in your party gets altitude sickness. My husband got it when we went to Mineral King at 10,000 feet. That was early in our marriage.
Your pictures are stunning.. Have a great time off the grid!♡♡♡
That is no fun at all. I didn’t feel too well at Independence Pass on the Contintenal Divide at 14,4 but we drove up there with no acclimation. We have been acclimating, doing day hikes to avoid this.
Reblogged this on Art, animals, and the earth.
Grateful to you Sharon and for your love of our precious planet! 🌍
Quite spectacular!
I am honored. Thank you~
The pictures are stunningly beautiful Cindy.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
I am honored. Thank you David & cheers my friend~
Breathtaking photos!
So very pleased you enjoyed them!
our brave friend wouldn’t get me on that edge 🙂
He seemed to get in front to protect silly humans from their silly selves~
Superb photos, Cindy!
Humbled, thank you Margaret!
Beautiful photos. Is that a chipmunk near the bottom? Those guys are hard to capture, they move so fast.
Exactly! Except when they rarely sit still and stare at you!🐿
Que ‘Sierra Sierra’…… (*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪
🗻(*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪🗻
Such a beautiful place. That blue of the water is incredible.
Yes these eastern high Sierra lakes are cerulean blue. Gorgeous!
What an amazing trail Cindy! That was a friendly chipmunk. May you keep meeting more friends along the way 😎
I love my furry friends! 🐶
Beautiful country. Great photos depicting the exuberant feeling one would get in such a place. Thanks, once more, for sharing.
Thank you more for appreciating my friend. I know you love the wild spaces as I do!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We have spent so little time in our own high country, I’m envious. Love the dog. Our Westie is one week out of ACL surgery, the result of over-exuberance in a 10-yr-old dog.
Healing hopes for your four-legged family member! It is so sad when they hurt. I hope he is jumping again soon. <3
What a hiking adventure! That’s a lot of climbing! The view is breathtaking.
Good to have a brave friend leading the way. 🙂
He was adogable! <3
remarkable Pictures, in great Detail. Have you seen in the first picture, when you enlarge maximum at the left side behind a slightly slanted fir tree at he rim of the lake somone has lost a pair of pink slippers?
You have amazing powers of perception. I looked but could not find. Incredible that you could!
if you take the unenlarged Picture, 1.5 cm from bottom of pic, 3.5 from the left rim. Now zoom into this spot…
have a nice day
Well done Cindy. You were armed with an excellent guide and your magic camera. Fortunately for us, you like to share. 🙂
Awww, fortunately for me I have friends like you!
Wow, what gorgrous country! Please scratch your friend under the chin for me–I miss my dog(s) terribly when I’m hiking in the woods.
They are the best hiking partners in the world! I am sorry for your loss.
It’s nice to see clean, clear water anywhere. What a gorgeous view.
Yes, it is, especially in California where lower altitude lakes are drying up!
Lakes are drying up everywhere. Fish are dying in our lakes because the water is so low and polluted. 🙁
It is so incredibly irresponsible of us to have allowed this to happen. We are destroying our only home.
The world is a wondrous enchanted place. Thank you for reminding us all of that.
Awww, your comment makes me happy!
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous…
Mille grazie!
Amazing!
And so worth protecting! 🌎
Yes. Absolutely. “There is still a lot left worth fighting for. – Jane Goodall”
Thank you for sharing this beauty with us! Wow!
Thank you much more for appreciating our natural world!
The lakes look so blue and calm like. Is there any fishing there? What are those lakes stocked with if one fishes there?
I know they are full of all sorts of world class fish, rainbow and brown trout, etc., but I am not knowledgeable enough to answer your question. Sorry!
No problem. I bet the fishing is good though. 🙂 My little 8 yr. old grandson is already an experienced fly fisherman, so I have to pretend to ask the right questions, and tell good ‘fish stories,’ for him. 🙂
What a nice grandmother you are!
Oh my goodness…you had a great hike didn’t you! Such a beautiful vista! And I love that chipmunk shot. 😉
He was a chipper little munk!
hehehe
I want to jump on one of those cool lakes!
I think maybe I will tomorrow! I accidentally stepped in enough creeks today hiking and it felt quite refreshing!
What gorgeous scenery! Thanks for sharing it with us, Cindy. Be careful and enjoy your travels!
Cheers to you Debbie and we made it back down the mountain. More to come!
I hope you had a great hike.
The pictures are breathtakingly beautiful. I am not sure, but I think I would have turned around and the dogs and we would have jumped in the lake instead?
Two labs and their owner did just that. Lab owners are so smart and labs are all around perfect, especially in alpine lakes!
Looking at the mountains there, Cindy, tells me that has to be a very old mountain range. They are so rounded. Lovely views from there too.
Leslie
You know your mountains. Many were volcanoes and there is a lot of lava flows, pumice mountains, and red rock here. You can’t see this as much in winter with all the snow.
Beautiful! Hope you enjoy being disconnected for a day or so!
I do enjoy especially in nature’s embrace~
Amazing beautiful place and photos Cindy, just wow 🙂
Awww, so kind and so appreciated!
Beautiful photos of à beautiful place !!!
I am very pleased you enjoyed and thank you~
Reblogged this on Random Ramblings; Myriad Musings and commented:
Beautiful landscape – nature’s panorama, perfectly captured by Cindy!
🙂
We have been given such a gorgeous planet to protect, if we would just wise up and do it. Thank you my friend as always! <3 <3
Agreed – Mother Earth is our home…we need to keep her clean!
Such well captured gorgeous views! Enjoy the internet-free day and the wilderness. 😊
Thank you it was so worth it!
I was going to backpack from Kennedy Meadows to Mt. Whitney this summer, Cindy, but had to skip it. You are wandering around in my favorite part of the world. Jealous. 🙂 –Curt
We just hiked Whitney a few days ago and are still lusting at the cabins as we have been for years now. The leases are running down now. It is so stunningly gorgeous up there.
“We just hiked Whitney,’ she said casually. 🙂 That is one heck of a hike. I’ve usually come at it from the west after I’ve had a few weeks of backpacking under my belt. –Curt
Oh no, we didn’t summit! We’ve been doing a series of acclimating hikes, after Whitney, in Tioga Pass outside of Yosemite, and up in Mammoth Lakes. Going higher and longer each time. I am amazed to see how my stamina compares very favorably with when I was younger and the altitude bothers me less. Of course I am not doing 13 miles, mostly vertical in a day, like I did when I was young! But have you noticed this with yourself, that your stamina is good for long hauls with altitude? Tomorrow we are going to see The Ancient Bristle Cone Pine Forest, something I have never done. I want to hug 4,500 year old Methusula and get tips from her on healthy aging…….
I have always been amazed at how fast the body acclimates, Cindy. And it is definitely faster if you have a lot of high altitude living/hiking in your past. I think our red blood cells say, “Oh my, I recognize this,” and immediately begin to take in more oxygen. The last time I climbed Whitney I did so at the end of a 360 mile backpack trek. I won’t say it was ‘a piece of cake,’ but I was definitely ready for it. Some 20-something (40 years younger than I) trail runners were coming up from the east side and fell behind me on the ascent. 🙂 They were a bit surprised, but I wasn’t. My body had had a lot of time to acclimate.
As for the Bristle Cones, I love them. As I recall, Methuselah wasn’t marked at the time. People would probably break off pieces. Please pass on what advice the old fellow has to give you. 🙂 –Curt
There is a separate hike to a solitary tree estimated at 4800 years. We are leaving in about an hour and are going to attempt both hikes. Excited!
I love how you are able to get great pics of those little creatures that rarely stand still. And what a view!
Awww, thank you! Love the little critters and I think they sense it.
Gorgeous!
Thanks Robert and hope you are good~
What a hike and what a great friend to have with you. Looks as though the lakes have boats on them–that would be nice as well. Enjoy the hike. Breathe well!
The clean air and pristine water is what our earth is supposed to be!
Beautiful photos – they make me smile 😉
Awwww, your comments always do the same to me. Thank you Christy~
Wow those are cool lakes… Where are they again?
These are Mammoth Lakes in California.
Ahhh I see… Aren’t volcanic I believe, might be wrong
Breathtaking!
Ahhh, thank you my friend & cheers to you~
Wunderschöne Aufnahmen von diesem Naturparadies! Herzlichen Dank fürs zeigen…
Vielen Dank fur Ihre sehr freundlichen Anerkennung mein lieber Freund!
I look forward to your return to WiFi-land. Enjoy the electronics-free vistas.
Oscar
It was pretty spectacular! I know you were hiking some of the same trails.
Thank you for taking me to such a fantastic place Cindy. You are one of my brightest Stars. x
Your comment made my heart smile~ 😍 😍
Thank you for these gorgeous photos Cindy…I’m right there with you…in spirit of course 🙂 When I lived in Arizona I was always struck by how high above sea level we were even when not in the mountains. Sierra Vista itself was apx. 4,600 feet and that was in the foot hills of the Huachucas…I <3 it 🙂
Yes, those are spectacular mountains! We have some beautiful altitude here in the USA~
Yes we do…and I’m grateful I was able to see some of it 🙂 Of course now I’m able to see through your eyes with help from your camera 🙂
I would love to explore more of your mountains. Happy Sunday my friend~
Amazing! You and your wonderful adventures. 🙂
Grabbing life by the throat while I can! 🗻
Vistas are out of this world. Happy hiking, Cindy. I know what a hike like that is. Way to go!!
Each day you get more energy and can go longer and higher. It’s the mountain high!
I understand perfectly! I hike wild forests and the higher I go the more elated I get. Good for you, Cindy!!! Those climbs are not easy!
Yes, after awhile you get this exhilaration and energy boost and then really WANT to keep going. We have reserves of energy in us, the mysterious “second wind!”
My wife is scared of heights so she only fished in the lake a few years back. Never climbed up.
That must be one of the many lower lakes. They are beautiful!
Beautiful blue water, Cindy. How gorgeous. I used to be a backpacker and miss those “highs”. Have fun going higher!
They are pretty incredible mountain highs aren’t they! 🗻
What awesome views Cindy!! It looks like you were perched on top of the world! Stunning photos (like always!) What a wonderful hike (we are in Wisconsin, taking some much flatter hikes with our kids here!) xox
I have never been to Wisconsin but would love to visit. My husband lived there one summer and loved the beautiful lakes~
HI Cindy– yep we’ve been bobbing in, hiking around lots of lakes here– so beautiful and green!! I can imagine the photos you’d take here– There are bald eagles nesting in the trees around our lake.! xox
I hope you’re having a wonderful time!!! It’s such a beautiful area 🙂
We are, thank you Maria, and it is still gorgeous despite the terrible visible toll of the ongoing drought. I saw a bear cub yesterday, all alone with no mama bear to protect it. Sad. 🐻
Cindy knoke is doing great to promote all that is great… She is a favorite to safety professionals. Actually will need a private chart to appreciate her.
Awww, I am touched by your thougtful kindess. Thank you so much and cheers to you too!
What a beautiful part of the country you are in. I love your photos, they make me feel as if I am standing there with you. Love that dog, too.
My travels are a better experience with you, and the doggie, along with me! <3 🐶
That is beautiful country, Cindy! Thank you for taking us along with you!
Thank you more for coming with me and for such very thoughtful words. Happy Weekend Lavinia~
One word, “Wow.”
Love that word!
Reblogged this on SUSANNE LEIST.
Love you! <3
Cindy, the photographs in this post are astonishing; bringing tears to my eyes with their beauty. The one with your ‘best friend’ brings a wonderful sense of perspective. Such crystal clarity -I can just imagine how pure the air feels! What an amazing place.
What lovely thoughts that truly made my morning. Thank you for your thoughtfulness Annika and all the best to you my friend! <3
Breathtaking!
Merci beaucoup mon ami! <3
🙂
Simply gorgeous pictures!
So kind and much appreciated! Cheers to you~
Pure brilliance
Humbled Bob. Thank you!
High country lakes are one of my favorite places, Cindy. Aside from being so pristine and beautiful, they’re usually so far from the beaten path that you can actually find quiet…, and peacefulness. The scent of the spruce and pines is intoxicating too. 🙂
YES! You go up, up and away….from people! It is nirvana~
Jaw dropping spectacular!!!
You are a dear friend~ <3
<3
Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!! Gorgeous
After this, it’s up to Canada to see the teddy bears!
B.C. bears..Alberta…Polar teddys?
BC brown teddies up the knight inlet. We are staying in a cabin! Not till the salmon run in Sept though….
Lovely…:-)
You are a thoughtful friend. Be well~
Spectacular views and photos, Cindy! And cheers to you for hiking the hard stuff at altitude!
Getting a little stronger everyday! Wish I could hike these mountains everyday!
WOW! WOW!..I have no words..what a beautiful place! <3
It is more and more incredible the higher you climb. I am so pleased you see it as I do! Thank you~
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Wow, your dog is brave, I could never stand that close to the edge!
He’s a great mountain climber! 🐶
Oh how absolutely lovely to be in the Sierras with you, Cindy. Impressive hiking you’re doing, and good luck tomorrow as you climb higher. whew!
It just gets more gorgeous the higher you go! We just saw the bristlecone pines. One is 5065 years old! Mind blowing!
Those photos are amazing, Cindy. I love those deep blue lakes and congrats on all that climbing and walking. I’ve just come back from driving my daughter to school which is a 90 minute round trip and that exhausted me. I was driving behind a Police car which had signs of fatique written on it and yawning as I read “yawning”. Need a nap before I take the dogs for a walk to the beach.
Your trip sounds amazing!
xx Rowena
90 minutes round trip is brutal! Every day!!! Yikes! 😫
Beautiful images
Thank you so much and very glad you enjoyed them!
Breathtaking views caught through the eye of your camera.
Thanks so much! My camera and the doggie make a good mountain climbing team! 🗻
All beautiful, but I do love the chippy 🙂
Thank you and I do too!
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Cindy these photos are incredibly beautiful. I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to the cool or cold weather. I’m adapting after leaving Southwest Florida’s warmth. I have managed to get to western Nebraska where my first experience with temps below 45 degrees is currently taking place.Lol! 🙂
Yes, I hear it gets pretty darn cold in Nebraska in the winter. Hopefully you have sufficient time to prepare!
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/image-illustration-cute-penguin-standing-iceberg-lone-traveling-melting-symbolizing-global-warming-34654429.jpg
It was a cold night, temperature dropped to 39-degrees. But, my little ceramic heater keep the little RV toasty. 🙂
You can just head west when it starts geting really cold~
Looking out on that view would leave me breathless, of course the altitude would do it, too. 😉 Cindy, the dog and little chipmunk were so crisp and clear. The chipmunks scamper so fast I capture “blurs!” Thanks for sharing this gorgeous overlook on such pretty blue lake and evergreens, I can almost smell their needles and bark!
You are the nicest friend Robin. Cheers to you and have a wonderful week!
You take spectacular wilderness photos. Amazing!
I am honored and humbled. Thank you & cheers too!
I really like how you’re profiling California Cindy. Everytime I visit I see such beauty.
I am hoping she will be able to survive the continuing drought and fire season~
My thoughts are with you!
<3
Beautiful scenery! That little ground squirrel is so cute, though! 🙂
They are pretty amazing close up aren’t they!
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Reblogged this on penpowersong.
Beautiful countryside and you captured it with your great images.
I am very pleased you enjoyed. I have been enjoying your blog and photos as well!
What camera equipment did you use for the pics? They are really good.
Thank you. I used the sony HX400 which is not an expensive camera but has 1200mm equivalent zoom capablility.
Sehr schöne Fotos. Liebe Grüße, Wolfgang
Sie sind eine Art Freund Wolfgang!
wow what a beautiful place and your photos are amazing, you always take spectacular photo Cindy!
It is so wonderful to hear from you and visit your wonderful blog. Ciao my friend and cheers to you!