On October 9-10, 1982 Jim White and I backpacked in the Green Lake area of the Hoover/Yosemite National Park Wilderness. It was a three day weekend for me but only two for Jim - even so the loop trip made a fine two day hike.

We drove up the night before and camped in the Green Lake trailhead parking lot so got an early start on the trail. Beautiful fall weather as we hiked up the trail to Green Lake and then took the old unmarked trail toward Virginia Pass.

We had a look at some old mining ruins and proceeded by dead reckoning up the valley over easy terrain. A use trail was evident as we got above the meadow areas and neared the pass. We found several hundred feet of hard ice near the top of the pass and spent about two hours chopping steps across it. We probably could have bypassed some of it but we were well into it before realizing how hard it was.

Hit the top of the pass and crossed into Yosemite National Park around 3:30 or 4 p.m. as the sun was starting to sink behind the peaks. The use trail down the other side was easy going and after a while we decided to contour around toward the Summit Lake Pass trail to avoid losing some altitude and to make the next day shorter. We finally found a nice camping spot with small stream (very small) as dusk settled in and it started to get cold.

Mine Mill remains near Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Mine Mill remains near Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Mine Mill remains near Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982


Approaching Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Mine Mill remains near Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Approaching Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Jim on top of Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Don on top of Virginia Pass - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Virginia Canyon from Virginia Pass - Yosemite National Parkr Wilderness 1982

Virginia Canyon - Yosemite National Parkr Wilderness 1982

Summit Lake Pass - Yosemite National Parkr Wilderness 1982

Next morning we got a fairly early start and quickly found the main trail from Virginia Canyon over Summit Lake Pass to Virginia or Green Lakes. At the pass we left Yosemite National Park and stopped for snacks at Summit Lake - a pretty windy spot. There had been some early snow which was melting and things were a bit mucky.

We continued down a very pretty trail with snack and lunch stops as we passed a number of pretty lakes. Jim had gone down this trail once before on an early June trip several years ago when it was mostly snow covered and rained.

We soon arrived at Green Lake for a final snack before heading down to the car after a great trip. As we were driving out of the parking area we met a Brown Bear who was trying to raid the campground garbage cans and was being chased off (or trying to) by a deer hunter camped in the area.

Summit Lake - Hoover Wilderness 1982

East Fork Green Creek - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Hoover Lakes - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Nutter Lake - Hoover Wilderness 1982

East Lake - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Lightning strike - Hoover Wilderness 1982

Green Lake Loop route map - Hoover Wilderness 1982