High Sierra Trail - Day 8
When we picked the campsites for each night, we picked the site that advanced our chance of completing the HST, we did not pay any attention to the photography value of the campsite, except the one for night 7, Trail camp. Durgi suggested we camp there to catch the sunrise. Although it was our last day and we had no rush, Durgi and I woke up at 6am to witness this fantastic alpenglow over Mt. Whitney range.
Soon, sun's first rays were illuminating the range.
This was followed by deep red colors only seen in the Sierra.
Very soon, the entire valley was well lit.
We could not resist taking a couple of self portraits.
I tried multiple time lapses in the trip and all failed but this one magnificent time lapse of a Whitney sunrise (the first video in this page). We continued hiking down to magnificent scenery, through consultation lake, outpost camp, the meadows and finally down to Whitney portal.
We hiked past consultation lake.
We start seeing Lone Pine better as we start to descend.
When we look westwards towards the spires, we see the path we came from.
Mirror lake is spectacular.
Outpost camp is green.
We finally made it to Whitney Portal and walk through the arches.
Earned that burger and fries at Whitney Portal store. Finally met Doug Thompson, the owner of the store and had a great chat with him.
Garmin tracking for day 8: