Snow Ponds Above June Lake Traditional Cache
Snow Ponds Above June Lake
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The cache is located off the June Lake Snow Ponds trail. The trail begins a short drive up a dirt road of North Shore Drive at N 37 46.943 W 119 05.285. Drive up road toward the green water tank. Use first pull out on left to park. The trail begins 10 paces up from there at N 37 47.083 W 199 05.221. It’s about 1.6 miles to the cache from here. Take water and a picnic and be ready to explore.
This is a great hike to take with a picnic in mind and a willingness to explore some of the other snow ponds in this part of Reversed Peak. The Rush Creek glacier had a lot to do with shaping this area, but not to the depths of the Loop below. The glacier could not flow over Reversed Peak, it had to go around, so you see only limited evidence of glacial activity here. At least that’s my take of the geology of this area. Some may recognize this trail as a part of the June Lake Triathlon run. This is also the same turn off for the June Lake Mine geocache, make it a “twofer”!
The first ¼ mile is the steepest, then it’s a much more comfortable ½ mile walk to the first snow pond. Follow the trail for another .7 mile. At N 37 46.751 W 199 06.172 you will leave the trail and head down to your destination. As you go down off the trail you will see the snow ponds slightly to your right. Cross-country your way around the right side of the pond. You will see that your destination lies between 2 snow ponds. Your “geocache sense” will help identity where you will find the cache and enjoy the view.
We first visited this area in June. The tule was green and the yellow-headed black birds were nesting in them. In September we returned to hide our cache. The tule was now brown and the noisy black birds gone. However, the aspen were changing and there were still many birds flitting in the willows. These two ponds seem to have the most “going on”. I guess they don’t have names. We called one, Tule Pond, and the other, Willow Pond. You can call them whatever you want. Let us know what you name them! While there is a lot of wildlife in the area, fish are not available.
Take time to explore other ponds. If you head off over the rise toward Carson Peak, you will encounter another pond. We call that one Snail Pond. Walk around it and you will see why. There is another large depression to the west of this pond (your right if you are looking at Carson Peak). It was dry in Sept., didn’t see it in June. Some of the surrounding area was interesting; the cache site is the prime site. There may be other ponds we haven’t found.
If you want a shorter, more direct route to the cache start at the other end of the Snow Pond Trail. It is a steeper hike up and you need a 4WD to get up as far as you can before you start walking. The dirt road is off North Shore Drive across from Gull Lake, toward 158. Check Google Earth or a good map. It’s almost across from See Gull geocache.
The cache is a German mess kit. It started with a June Lake and a Sierra Nevada key chain, a first aid kit, survival blanket, LED flashlight, and a Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (San Pedro CA)1994 pin.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tb hc gb n ybat juvgr ebpx, jvgu jrfgrea Whavcre ohfu.
Treasures
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