Naturalist Basin

Waterfall Hunting.

     Inspired by another blogger and recent friend, his blog can be found here:
 http://seekingshambhala.blogspot.com/.  I decided to check out the waterfalls he told me about in the Naturalist Basin. I knew it was just a little more than a day hike, so my son and I took the tent. We headed in around noon and made it to the wilderness boundary very quickly. Even this far away from a major city you can still find people willing to deface things!

     A short few miles later we hit the turn off and the hope of finding some waterfalls.

     I wasn't too sure where I was going to find waterfalls, but I new if I spent a little time with the map, checking inlets and outlets they wouldn't be too hard to find. At this point, I had to decide to climb up to the two Morat lakes and Blue lake or stay lower in the drainage and hit Jordan lake.

     We chose to check out Blue lake and find a place for the night, on the way we passed a beautiful meadow.

     Once we tackled a very steep climb, we reached the Morat lakes and between them and up towards Blue above the next ridge we found a gorgeous waterfall.

 

     The two Morat lakes.

 

     The top section.

 

     The middle.

    
     The bottom.

     Blue Lake.

 
     After reaching Blue lake and discovering the unending onslaught of mosquitos there, we decided to check out Le Conte lake and there we found a fast approaching storm, so going lower was the best option.

 

     
     Above Jordan lake.

     
     My son and his phone, even the great, out of doors is no match for a smart phone. Not really, he just likes to take pictures as much as I do!

      Jordan lake.

      After looking for way down to Jordan, we found another waterfall.

     We made camp, filtered some water and were asleep before the rain started. The next morning we had breakfast and hit the trail. We had a family event later in the evening and even though I was sure there might be at least one more falls; we need to get back. On the way out, we ran into this little pygmy rabbit. This rabbit sat motionless hoping it's camouflage would keep it unseen, we just took a couple pictures and moved on.

     
     One last parting shot.