Inyo National Forest, California
If you've started a hiking or backpacking journey, you might have come across a few "peak baggers". Peak bagging is when someone is trying to collect summits. There are three common sets of peaks to bag: state and local peaks, mountains whose peak is above 14,000 feet (14'ers), and state high points. Any peak bagger is eventually going to need to hike Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. At over 14,500 feet, Whitney is a grueling hike that has become incredibly popular. So popular, in fact, that permits are required during peak season. The area surrounding Whitney is full of massive peaks that offer impressive views with hikes that can offer a rewarding challenge. One such peak is Mount Langley.
The trailhead to Mount Langley is about three and a half hours outside of Los Angeles is there is no traffic, and about four and a half hours outside of Las Vegas if you wish to drive through Death Valley, The drive there is quite uneventful, but 30 minutes before you reach the trailhead things get interesting. The nearby city is at an elevation of 3,000 feet, and the trailhead around 10,000. Once you turn off the highway, you begin a fairly steep ascent up a paved two lane road. The road makes several switch backs with very blind corners up the side of a sheer mountainside, so be mindful of your driving. There is quite a bit of parking at the trailhead, but it is a very busy location on the weekends. This is an active bear area, so be sure that you get all food and scented items out of your vehicle and if you have a cooler or something that looks like a cooler, be sure to hide that.
There are several different routes to get to Mount Langley, but the most popular route is through from the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead and over New Army Pass. This route is almost 22 and a half miles long and just under 5,000 feet of elevation gain. It is best done as a two to three day backpacking trip to help with acclimating to the elevation and because it is a really hard hike. If you're up for a really long day, you may be able to do this in one, but I'd at least recommend spending a night at the campground. The first bit of the trail starts meandering through a forested area with several stream crossings and lakes. This section of the trail is well defined, well maintained, and a very easy wake up for the legs. There is not much elevation gain in the first sixish miles, which you will much appreciate on the next five miles. The transition point from relatively flat trail to an incline occurs not long after High Lake. This lake is a very important spot for this hike, as it signifies a couple of different things. Once you pass High Lake, you will go about eight miles without being able to fill up water until you come back down the pass. This is also where the landscape transitions from vegetation to stone, and shade is no longer available unless you sit in the shadow of a rock.
After High Lake is New Army Pass, a sheer and not so short walk up the cliff. To make it to the top, you will gain almost 800 feet in a little over a mile once departing from High Lake. The switchbacks are very manageable and offer increasingly great views of the Cottonwood Lakes. In my opinion, the views were so stunning that I didn't mind taking a few extra stops to soak it all in. The top of the pass is a great place to stop, snack, and enjoy the view, and you will likely be wanting a bit of a break after the ascent anyways. Once you turn away from the Cottonwood Lakes region and begin the trek towards Langley, the view gets to be a little repetitive and rocky. If you or your hiking partner like trees, you will absolutely not like this section of the trail. From here until, well, the summit of Langley you are faced with rock and gravel and shades of grey and brown. Personally, I love the towering peaks that just into the sky as gray spires, but it isn't for everyone. There's only a couple of miles until the top, but the incline gets increasingly steep. It is honestly not a lof of fun and if you are not used to the elevation you will start to feel it about halfway between New Army Pass and the summit. We decided to drop out packs and take off with a little bit of water up to the top because we were struggling. And I was very glad that we did. Going up Langley felt like attempting the Stairmaster after running a half marathon.
You know you're getting close to the last half mile when the trail starts turning into scree. It sucks on the way up but you can fly on the way down if you know how to scree run. You have a little bit of this leading up to the mountain. When you summit a hill and come across a weirdly flat, wide-open space, you're ready to climb. When we went, there was about twenty boot path trails that crossed this area. Follow the most obvious straight across trail that you can see, and when you get to the other side it will feel like you lost the trail. Don't fret. There's a small scramble required to get up to the trails and I don't know how I missed it, but their is a giant rock cairn right at the top of the scramble. Once you get over the scramble, the trail doesn't get much easier to follow but there's a lot less options to choose from. From the first cairn to the top felt like 50 switchbacks where you could go left or right and both options would work. For us, the only way we could get it straight was the absolutely massive cairns that were spaced quite perfectly. You could see the next cairn from the one you were standing at. And by golly they were tall. For a fun photo, take a picture next to one. Seriosuly I don't know that I've seen cairns that large anywhere else. It's not a terribly long climb but it does feel like it to get to the top. Once up there though, the view is absolutely stunning. You can see for miles all the way into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, and far out over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. If you head to the "right" side of the summit, you can find the signs to take your picture with.
If you, like us, were frequently turned around and confused on the way up, you might end up feeling a little silly on the way down. The trail is very easy to spot when looking down, especially with the extra large cairns. The way down absolutely flies down, especially when you use the scree to help drop a few extra feet at a time. I wouldn't necessarily call it scree running but it kind of felt like skiing. I'd definitely recommend once you get back down from the summit that you stop, eat, and add some electrolye mix into your water. From their, you can walk back towards the New or Old Army Pass. I did not go down Old Army Pass, but it didn't look too bad from Cottonwood Lake #2. If you want a different view, you can choose to go down the other pass that you didn't come up. Either way, the views coming down are going to be awesome just be sure to watch your feet as much as you're watching the view. Once you get back down to High Lake, there's water a plenty and plenty of shade. Enjoy the changing landscape as you walk back to your vehicle.
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