Hike Tioga Crest Inyo National Forest, CA

Aug 06, 2024 — With some time to kill and all the excitement of being in a totally new area, I decided to explore the Tioga Pass peaks area of Inyo National Forest. Tioga Crest is the high point of a short ridgeline that also includes Tioga Peak to the south. Both summits are worthwhile, though somewhat impractical to combine as a traverse since this would require significant road walking and nearly equal vertical gain veruss doing them individually. I began my hike from Saddlebag Lake, accessible by any vehicle via a dirt road. I wrapped around the east side of this man-made body of water, and the views were already stunning, looking back toward the trailhead and Mount Conness. As I continued along the shoreline, various summits around the Twenty Lakes Basin came into view. There's an extensive trail system within the basin, but I would only be using it briefly to access Tioga Crest.

The trail gradually gained some elevation before I left it as it began to dip back down. Heading north up a leisurely grassy slope, navigation was straightforward. There wasn’t a social trail, so I simply wandered in a general ascending traverse along the slope. As the slope became more angled, some side-hilling was necessary, but it wasn’t too annoying. I could see Saddlebag Lake behind me, with Tioga Crest ahead. The ascent continued into a gully, becoming steeper, and I paused for a view across the lake toward Mount Conness and North Peak.

The slope became less steep again higher up, though progressively turning rockier. The higher I climbed, the more wildly expansive the views became. Saddlebag Lake sat prominently below, and a bit farther along, I could see Mount Dana rising in the distance. Tioga Crest has two competing summits, but the eastern one is reportedly slightly taller. Some light Class 2 scrambling brought me to the top, where I could see Dunderberg Mountain, Excelsior Mountain, and the strikingly vibrant Burro Lake that I’ve become infatuated with.