Trailhead: D&F Pack Station
Elevation: 10320 ft
Route: Kaiser Loop East
Difficulty: Class 1, 10.8 mile hike
Kaiser Peak is a lovely half day hike convenient to Fresno into the west sierra high country that leads to a vista with views north into Yosemite, east in Mammoth, and south into King's Canyon. The peak is barely east of one of the edges of the 2020 Creek Fire scar and the first mile passes through burned forest with eroded trail, ash, and dead trees. However, despite the burn, the trail is lousy with wildflowers and snow plants and the majority of the hike is above the burn zone.
After an easy 90 minute drive from Fresno that passed through Shaver Lake and Huntington Lake, the little dog and I started at a small marked parking lot near the trailhead. This region was devastated by a wildfire in September 2020. Although it's still not known what ignited the blaze, by the time the Creek Fire was contained it had burned nearly 400k acres and destroyed about half the homes in Big Creek, CA. On the day the fire began, it trapped hundreds of Labor Day campers at Mammoth Pool, just north of Huntington Lake. Eventually they were rescued by helicopter but not before having (I imagine) the scare of a lifetime. The fire, the fourth largest in CA history, even created its own pyrocumulonimbus cloud which essentially is just a thunderhead generated from extreme wildfire heat. You can use Caltopo to see the wildfire history of a place - it is "fire history" found on the map layers tab. You can see that pretty much all the land surrounding Kaiser peak has burned recently - between 2016 and 2020 (red shading).
The fire history of the land surrounding Kaiser Peak
This peak is essentially a hike on a good single track trail that switchbacks generously up to the ridge. As the little dog zoomed up and down the trail I stopped to take pictures of the abundant post-snowmelt wildflowers.
A trio of snow plants
Snow plants (Sarcodes sanguinea or roughly, bloody flesh-thing) are these striking monsters that are often seen in early summer in the high country right after the snow has melted. They are mycotrophic, meaning that they leach energy from the fungi that colonize the tree roots of nearby conifers. Pretty cute right? They were all over the trail to Kaiser peak.
Pink Stickseed
I also saw a real riot of pink stickseed (Hackelia mudula) which starts out with pink flowers that gradually turn blue as they age.
There wasn't much water on the trail, just a single stream that we approached at around the 3.5 mile mark. The little dog drank the two liters I had brought and then drank the next two liters that I purified out of the creek. So much for staying hydrated. After about 4 miles we emerged onto the summit plateau which has striking views of the Sierra from the west. I realized that although I'm becoming quite familiar with Sierra peaks I did not recognize their western aspects! I am sure that I could see into Yosemite Valley, with the big dome of Half Dome as a good marker, and I believe I also could see Ritter and Banner near Mammoth Lakes. The towering peaks of Kings Canyon and Sequioa were also visible to the south although I don't know all of their names yet. The smog cloud over Fresno predominated the view to the west.
Expansive summit views including the domes of Yosemite due north
The little dog loves running singletrack in the high country
Overall this was a great dayhike and nice way to tire out a canine. It gave me a great overview vista of the western sierra, and was quite uncrowded and logistically simple. Give it a try if you're in Fresno!
Map with GPX file - click to download GPX
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