The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
After another night well below freezing, we woke up and had a nice, warm campfire before packing up. It was time to leave Nelson Lake.
Steam rising on the lake.
After the sun came up and melted off the frost, we said our goodbyes to Nelson Lake and headed down the trail.
One last look at Nelson Lake.
Back at the wilderness boundary on our way out to the car. It was a great few days of backpacking, hiking, and camping with my parents just like we used to do when I was young.
Walking across the meadow at Nelson Lake after coming back down from Nelson Mountain.
Enjoying some warm drinks around the campfire as the cold night air comes in.
Getting ready for the sunset.
My dad and I decided to hike up to the top of Nelson Mountain from Nelson Lake. It’s only 10,220 feet tall but it is a prominent mountain in the front range of the Sierras and has an amazing view of the central valley.
Little footprints in the snow.
We found a horseshoe at the pass between the Nelson Lake basin and the Sportsman Lake basin.
Up on the ridgeline above Nelson Lake.
We found this cairn monument up on the ridgeline above Nelson Lake. I wonder who built these.
Looking out past Eagle Mountain toward the big 14k peaks in the spine of the Sierras.
Up on the ridge toward the summit of Nelson Mountain. It got icy and snowy as we went higher.
Climbing on up.
More snow.
Almost to the summit.
Here’s the view from the summit. A storm started popping up toward the north so we didn’t spend too much time on the summit.
On the summit!
Looking down toward Dinkey Creek and Forked Meadow. Pretty hard to believe that this is the huge mountain that looks out over our little meadow.
The storm shrouded the summit in snow right as we got down off of the top. We descended back to the lake along the same way that we came up.