The world like it was

Hiking the San Joaquin Ridge

Almost no one thinks of hiking the San Joaquin Ridge from the Minaret Vista overlook.

That’s their loss – and your gain.

This hike gets you up close and personal to the towering Minarets, the sheer backside of June Mountain and the snow-capped mountains above Thousand Island Lake and southern Yosemite; a fantastical world that looks unchanged from thousands of years ago.

The hike also takes you right through the middle of a fantastic display of one of the Eastside’s most uncommon and gorgeous wildflowers; the iridescent, blue-purple-violet Showy penstemon, where on a good year like this year, the flowers can cover the sides of the trail like the sky gone to ground.

All you need for this hike is a taste for wide-open spaces and sunshine (trees are sparse on this hike) and a love of solitude.

Don’t expect a signed trail head or crowded parking lot – the San Joaquin Ridge is a do-it-yourself kind of hike.

The route described here follows an old 4WD road (although you can stay off-road and wander through the flowery ridges and windswept pines on either side of the road if you wish). This year, the road is even more appealing hike due to a big snowbank blocking the road to many vehicles. Your destination could be the end of the road, where a turnaround on the high ridge offers sweeping views down into the Glass Meadows area, northeast to the Mono Craters and White Mountains, then south to Mammoth Mountain and the Minarets and back to June Mountain.

If you get even more ambitious, at the end of the three miles of road hiking you can take the two-mile unmaintained trail up the inelegantly-named Two Teats rock formation, an 11,234 high point on the backside of June Mountain. From there you can see not only the Mammoth area but all of June Lake as well.

The only thing “missing” from the hike is water. The ridge is high and made of pumice rock and soil. It drains water rather than stores it, so take enough water for the day. The hike is especially beautiful after a storm when the sky is clear as a mirror or in the spring and early summer when the wildflowers take over the whole ridge.

Go on.

Get out there.

The hike

Park your car off the old 4WD road that leaves Minaret Vista and north toward June Mountain. Begin hiking on the soft pumice soil through a sparse lodgepole forest for the first half hour of the hike. Follow the road as it climbs slightly toward the backside of June Mountain, which you can see looming above you to the north.

As you walk, the forest will begin to give way to fewer and larger trees; a function of the wind and weather that batters the ridge. The views begin to open up, too, with all of Reds Meadow deep below you to the south, the Minarets towering to the southwest, and the Ritter Range dominating the skyline to the west and northwest.

In about a mile, the road begins to steepen a bit, though it is still an easy walk. Look for the telltale blue violet of the showy penstemon, a native wildflower with colors that look like they came from a palette lit by electric charges. Sometimes I do this hike just to be astonished at how much beauty can be contained in one perfect, impossible, flower.

At about two miles, the road steepens even more and begins a sturdy climb up toward the turnaround at the road’s end. Looking east, you can begin to see the Mono Craters country coming into view, along with shimmering Mono Lake. Closer to home, at the bottom of the ridge you are walking on, you can look down and see the headwaters of Glass Creek, fed by the snow on the cliffy, north-facing slopes below you.

At about 2.3 miles, you are almost at the end of the road and there is absolutely nothing obscuring your view for 20 to 30 miles in any direction. The wind howls here, the burnt umber and sienna of the twisted Lodgepole and Whitebark pine against the blue sky takes the breath away.

At the top of the ridge where ridge and road end in a rocky turnaround, decide if you wish to drop down to a saddle on an unmaintained (but obvious) trail below you, then climb up again to 11,600 foot Two Teats.

Don’t do any of this without some experience going crosscountry. While not especially difficult, this trail is not on a map, so it is even more critical you have some basic backcountry skills and can read a topographical map.

The hike to Two Teats is about another two miles with some steep climbing on loose, pumice soil. The reward is the views from the top down into the June Lake drainage and even the Yosemite National Park country to the north.

Retrace your steps back to your car.

Getting there

Take S.R. 203 west past Mammoth Mountain and follow it to Minaret Vista, about 5 miles from Mammoth. Turn left and bypass the Vista and drive a bit farther down the dirt road that branches to the right of the Vista’s paved road.

If you have a 4WD, follow this road as far as you would like to make your hike shorter.

The road is generally in good shape for most cars, but a few ruts require the 4WD option within the first mile.

Hike details Length: Difficulty: Elevation gain and loss: Notes:

.5 to 3 miles one way Moderate

About 600 feet

This is a hike on an old gravel road. If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t do it. But I guarantee you’ll see fewer people than on almost any trail within 50 miles and better views than from most trails in the world.

Just saying …