Mount Ian Campbell WTC Experience Trip

  • Updated: July 28, 2018
  • Post By: Matthew Hengst

July 28th & 29th, 2018
Day 1: 4.5 miles, 2,200'
Day 2: 7.3 miles, 1,400'

Ian Campbell is a relatively minor named peak near Florence Lake in the Western Sierra. It's not on any list and doesn't particularly stand out from a distance but its located above a spectacular lake that's only a few miles in along a seldom used trailhead. Combine this with the fact the campsite is low enough to allow campfires and the lake warm enough to be ideal for swimming a good chunk of the summer and you have all the ingredients for one of my favorite WTC Experience Trips to lead.

This is the second time I've done the trip with the first time being with Jen Blackie in October 2016. The only real downside is that the drive is on the long side but that can be helped that by having people camp along the way and starting later than usual since it's such a short day in.

This trip happened in the middle of a bad fire season with the Ferguson Fire outside Yosemite causing massive smoke problems across the Sierra. In fact Yosemite itself was evacuated during this time. We decided to do the trip anyway after looking at the smoke modeler here and for the most part it wasn't that bad except in the late afternoons but be aware the views are usually even more spectacular. Unfortunately conditions like these are just a fact of life in the Sierra particularly with the last few years of drought conditions and warmer weather.

I've arguably been trying to slightly overdo things this summer if you can't tell from the writeups from each and every weekend. So in appropriate fashion after last weekend's three day rain soaked climb of Mallory and Lone Pine I had five whole days in town followed by this which was intended as an easier end trip.


So in order to keep busy I did 4 lunchtime workouts with my trainer, one WTC related after work rock climbing event at Ortega Falls, two 20+ mile bike rides to Orange County breweries, and then to top it off on Thursday a 26 mile bike ride from my apartment down to the beach where we launched for the Pizza Paddle. Kristen was nice enough to bring the boats down so I was able to just throw my bike in her car and paddle with everyone to dinner. And yes, contrary to rumor I do have an actual paid job that I work quite hard at between all of this.

So after all of that it was with some amount of soreness and relief I met Jen Jones and her cousin Kitty Irving at the Orange County park and ride for the long drive up to the Western Sierra Friday night.


As I mentioned the drive on this trip can be a bit rough. It's about 350 miles from our OC park and ride to the trailhead and the last 30 miles or so is done on a paved but pothole strewn 1.5 land winding mountain road.


I found it nicer to do part of the drive and then bivy along the way. There's a perfect spot just past Huntington Lake (directions here) where there is a dirt turnout suitable for street cars and anything with high clearance can get back to a turnaround loop with a fire pit and plenty of places to sleep.

We stayed here with others either camping at the trailhead (which is technically day use unless you're in your vehicle) or at nearby Mono Hot Springs.


After a number of very last minute cancellations we ended up with 13 of our 15 slot permit and everyone arrived well before our 10 am departure.

The trailhead has the usual bathrooms and bear boxes and as it turns out there's even an AT&T tower at nearby Mono Hot Springs so you can actually get cell reception not far down the road but not at the actual trailhead.

Be aware we found the quota for this trailhead to be somewhat inconsistent. The website lists only 5 reservable each day but talking to multiple people at the ranger station they were happy to let us borrow and issued us a 15 person permit.


We started hiking at a leisurely 10 am. There was smoke in the air partially obscuring our views and you could smell it but it's not the worse I'd seen.


The trailhead is at 7,400' and Dutch Lake at 9,100' and the trail climbs steadily over the course of about 2.5 miles.


Dutch Lake has some extensive camping sites but the lake itself is shallow and brushy so you're far better served continuing up one more short hill to Crater Lake.


Slightly better!


There's a large campsite right when you reach the lake (picture from later that evening during happy hour) and finding ourselves the only ones there we spread out amongst the sites to either side.

Everyone else started out by setting up their tents but since I was in a bivy I elected to test out the water.


The lake is low enough there isn't a constant supply of snow melt and it felt just about perfect after the hot hike up.


We soon had almost the entire group swimming.


A few of us swam to the far side where there was a nice rock to lay out on and we passed the next few hours quite happily.

Happy hour started a little before 6 after some intensive firewood scavenging on the slopes below the lake.


We had a variety of food and drink including mole tacos...


...a variety of alcohol...


...and of course marshmallows which Jacky proceeded to incinerate in our completely reasonable campfire.

Most people went to bed fairly early having had a late night driving out to the trailhead but a few of us enjoyed the fire until well after 10 pm.


The next morning we had what amounted to a relaxed -ish start since we didn't start hiking until 6 am. It's only a few miles up to the peak but I still didn't want to start too late since I was concerned the smoke would likely roll in again and of course we had quite the drive home ahead of us.


From camp we climbed the ridge and just picked our way to the northwest.


There's a bit of bushwhacking and about 900ft of gain before you reach the ridge and things get easier.


To the north I was once again drawn to Kings Castle which I plan to get out and climb one of these days. It looks like you can just walk the ridge north of Ian Campbell or climb it more directly.


Once on the ridge we were treated to a much better view and you're all but done with gain at this point.


The summit block (once you find the right one) initially looks imposing but it's fairly straightforward from either side.


From the south there's a perfect step up and then it's ramps to the marmot poop covered summit.


The summit is a tight fit so as soon as we took our victory shot we went a short distance further north to the large flat open area which has ample seating and better views.







We were hiking at 6 and on the summit by 8 am. By 8:45 people were dozing on the rocks and we decided it was time to head down.


We were back down to camp around 10:30 and alloted a bit of extra time to breaking down camp so we could all take one last opportunity to jump into the lake.



During the hike out the smoke started visible blowing in and by the time we reached the trailhead at 2 pm it looked like this...


This is a view out across Florence Lake. For comparison this is how it looked last time I was out here...


(Note that this was October at the end of a bad drought year so the water was a lot lower.)

Still it was hard to complain considering the beautiful conditions at camp and the fact that we had almost no mosquitos except for a few right around sunrise and sunset.


The post trip meal was at an old favorite Velasco's in Prather. The food was excellent as always and we even managed to make it back to Orange County at a decent hour.

Next up it's 5 whole days back in town and then a three day trip to Treasure Lakes to scramble around on some 3rd class peaks. Oh, and do some alpine beer sampling!

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