Photo Friday: A Little More From the Sierra

Last week I shared photos from days 1 and 2 of my most recent Sierra trip. That took us up and over Paiute Pass, then down into Pauite Canyon. I don't have a lot more ready to go, but I can report out on Day 3, which involved hiking the rest of the way down Paiute Canyon to the John Muir/Pacific Crest trails, then up the San Joaquin River and finally up into the Evolution Valley at the end of a long day.

We'd spent the night down in the trees by the creek, but most of the trail was a bit up the slope and in the sun.

Periodically the trail dropped to creek level (when the canyon wasn't too steep and narrow), and there were waterfalls.

 

Up from the stream onto the slopes again, with cool trees.

I think the trail junction is down where the slopes all come together.

We've dropped a lot of elevation and the size of the trees shows it.

By noon we'd dropped to the JMT--and the lowest point of the whole hike, at about 8100'--more than 1000' lower than we started the trip, and over 3000' below Paiute Pass. Muir Pass, our next high point, is just a hair under 12,000'.

We're exchanging the John Muir Wilderness for Kings Canyon National Park for the next 4 days. We had a nice break in the shade, and ate our lunch, while more hikers than we'd seen in the previous 2 1/2 days walked past.

Keeping an eye on both the condition of our bodies and the miles left between us and the car, we set a goal for the afternoon--reach Evolution Meadow, at 9200'. Not bad, except most of the climb is concentrated in the last mile and a half, and in fact in about a 3/4 mile stretch that would come very late in the day. But hey! We'd eaten 2 1/2 days worth of food, so the packs were lighter, right?

Beginning the walk up the San Joaquin.

We took a good break and snack, and got a little more water, before we began the 800' climb from Goddard Creek to Evolution Meadow.

Looking back down the valley we've just walked up. Mark is just coming into view.

Eventually we reached the top of the steep climb, where Evolution Creek pours over the cliff in a series of cascades.
 

The top of the falls.

From there the trail backed way off on the climb, though we continued for another half mile or so, with repeated waterfalls of different sizes.

 

  

 

By this time it was getting pretty close to sundown; we were lucky that the valley is more east-west than north-south, so we didn't lose the sun at 4, but after 6. We decided to cross the creek before camping, and hikers coming the other way tipped us off about a good campsite about 300 yards on, so we put on our water shoes and started walking.

Gretchen crossing the creek. Just deep enough not to want to get our boots into it, especially as the temperature would drop to near freezing overnight.

Home. This site was a large area with a lot of tent spots, probably heavily used by through-hikers on the JMT/PCT during the season. We had it to ourselves.

 

After nearly 9 miles and that killer climb at the end, we were ready to have dinner and crawl into bed. Next day we'd be doing a similar hike--an easy walk up the valley, with a stiff climb at the end to Evolution Lake. But that will have to wait a couple of weeks, until I can get the photos edited.

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 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026 

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