For this weeks California mountain adventure we travel to the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains to explore the

Dome Land Wilderness!!

Larry (Hive account@csusbgeochem1) and I packed up our backpacks got my dogs in the car and then drove through the night. Across the desert, up passed Lake Isabella and up into the Sequoia national forest to the trailhead at Big meadow. We got there and got a few hours of sleep. Once the sun came up we hit the trail. The trail started out pretty steep as we climbed up and over a big ridge. We passed the wilderness sign as we crested the ridge and then it was all downhill to Manter meadow. We took the southern trail around the meadow (Larry swears this was the longer way, but according to the map it's pretty much the same distance either way) and about halfway around the meadow we stopped and dropped our packs and took a nice break to enjoy the beautiful scenery!

Entering the Dome Land Wilderness

Arriving at Manter meadow

Manter meadow

After our break we made our way around to the east side of the meadow and found a great spot to setup camp near Manter creek. As we made camp the clouds were building. Once we were all settled at camp I was ready to explore, but with our lack of sleep and the gloomy forecast Larry decided to just hangout at camp and take a little nap. So just me and the dogs headed out to go explore the Church domes!

From the south end of the meadow we took the Woodpecker trail out to the domes. As we got near them we left the trail and climbed up to the base of the domes and started exploring the area. As we did it began to rain. It wasn't really heavy rain, but it was enough that I decided to take shelter under a rock overhang. After only 20 minutes or so the rain subsided and I continued my exploration. I was having lots of fun, climbing ALL OVER the many domes! The rock was great quality for climbing with lots of fun class 3-4 and the scenery up there was absolutely spectacular. I live for adventures like this.

Approaching the Church Domes

Getting to the base of the domes

Exploring Church Domes

Having fun climbing on the domes

After checking out all the domes we dropped back down to the Woodpecker trail and took it back to our camp by Manter creek. As we hiked back the clouds began to clear. I got back and told Larry all about the adventure. We made some dinner and then climbed up on the hill by our camp to a nice spot overlooking the meadow where we had some drinks and watched the sun set behind the mountains.

Hiking back to camp

Getting back to Manter meadow

Watching the sunset

The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast, loaded up our day packs, and headed out to spend the day climbing Rockhouse peak! We hiked down the Manter trail which followed along Manter creek for a few miles and then climbed up onto the south ridge of Rockhouse peak. From there we left the trail and started ascending the peak. We made our way around the southern cliff faces and onto the northern face. The last few hundred feet was a steep rocky climb with a bit of fun exposed class 3 climbing to get to the top. The huge views from the summit were incredible and the weather was perfect!

Manter creek

Larry getting ready for the climb

Ascending the south ridge of Rockhouse peak

Views from the north face of Rockhouse peak

Climbing the north face

Getting on the exposed class 3

Climbing up the final exposed ridge to the summit

On the summit!!

We hung out for awhile on the summit enjoying the awesome scenery and then headed back down to the Manter trail and back up the trail to our camp. When I got back to camp I noticed Larry wasn't behind me... he had been there just a few minutes before. I waited at camp expecting him to show up, but after a few minutes of not seeing him I went looking. I found him pretty quick. He wasn't far from the camp, but had lost the trail somehow and got turned around and was totally lost even though he was only a few hundred feet from camp! After that we enjoyed one more night at our camp, then the next morning we packed up our stuff and started hiking back out to the trailhead. This time we took the northern trail around Manter meadow and I'm glad we did because we got to see a big black bear! I love getting to see the wildlife. From there we climbed back over the ridge to the trailhead at Big meadow, finishing up another awesome adventure!!