Graveyard Lakes Trail
2009 Trip
Trail Location and info: This is a good moderately difficult hike out of Lake Edison. The distance from the trailhead to the lower lake is about 7.5 miles with an elevation gain of about 2150 feet.
To get to Lake Edison, you take CA-168 from Fresno up past Shaver Lake until you get to Huntington Lake and the Kaiser Pass Road turnoff, which is just past the hydroelectric plant on the right side of the road. Taking Kaiser Pass Road, you will come to the point where there road turns into one lane. Take the one lane road up to Kaiser Pass and down the other side and after some time on the windy mountain road you will come to the fork where you will turn left to go to Lake Edison. The road then descends down to the San Joaquin River and Mono Hot Springs and then climbs back up to Lake Edison. Follow the signs to the Vermillion Resort, but continue past the resort following the trailhead signs. The total drive from Fresno takes about 3 hours.
There are two trails at the trailhead; one goes to Devil's Bathtub and the other to Goodale Pass. You will want to take the Goodale Pass trail on the right. The trail starts off relatively flat with some gradual up and down. After about 1.5 miles the trail takes a left, heading away from Lake Edison, passing through a meadow. After this meadow, you will start about a thousand foot ascent over the next mile and a quarter to Graveyard Meadow. Shortly before Graveyard Meadow, you will come to Cold Creek again (you will have crossed this on a bridge at the beginning of the trail), the marks the end of the uphill for awhile. After Cold Creek you will stroll through the forest alongside Graveyard Meadow. You will actually always stay no less than 200 feet from the meadow, but it is a very beautiful meadow and worth the short walk to take a look at it (unless you get eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes). After your stroll along the meadow, the trail will start to climb again and you'll soon come to another Cold Creek crossing. I found this one to be a bit difficult early in the season, but it shouldn't be bad after June. The trail then ascends up to Upper Graveyard Meadow where the trail splits off to Graveyard Lakes. This is where you will take a left, leaving the Goodale Pass Trail. Shortly after that you will be at another Cold Creek crossing and then the trail climbs up about 530 feet over the next 3/4 mile or so to the Lower Graveyard Lake.
From the Lower Graveyard Lake you can take day hikes to the other Graveyard Lakes or continue on about half a mile to the biggest Graveyard Lake. I've also heard great things about Peter Pande Lake north of the big Graveyard Lake. To get to there, you will go cross-country over the ridge north of the lake, which isn't very difficult. I think there were a few easy class 2 sections, but you can walk up most of the way (though it is steep). The top of the pass was as far as I had gotten due to a snow pack on the other side, but from there you would scramble down the other side and follow the valley down and around the ridge on the northwest.
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