Backpacking the JMT
It was hard. Over 200 miles in sixteen days (August 6th to August 20th), at times carrying a pretty heavy backpack, traversing eight up to 13,500 feet passes and finally summiting Mt. Whitney. It was incredible. It is difficult to put the beauty of the scenery into perspective, and the photos don't capture well the incredible size of it all. Taking wide lens shots just make the enormous mountains shrink to meager hills. Weather clearing up at Lower Palisade Lake (10,600 ft). In the end, it only rained for ten minutes on the entire hike. The John Muir Trail in California Elevation Profile of the JMT It is very isolated. The John Muir Trail traverses the Sierra Nevada from north to south starting at Yosemite National Park and ending on Mt. Whitney in Sequoia National Park. In between the trail goes through the Inyo and Sierra National Forests as well as Kings Canyon National Park. The entire area is uninhabited, and the trail does not cross a single road. Resupply was only pos...