Vanderburgh–Lillian Lakes Loop
TRAIL USE
Day Hike, Backpack,
Horse, Run,
Child-Friendly
LENGTH
12.2 miles, 6–12 hours (over 1–3 days)
VERTICAL FEET
±2,310'
DIFFICULTY
TRAIL TYPE
Loop
FEATURES
Lake
Wildflowers
Great Views
Camping
Swimming
Secluded
Granite Slabs
Geological Interest
FACILITIES
Bear Boxes
Campgrounds
Horse Staging
Restrooms
If you are in shape, you could hike this entire circuit in one day without overexerting yourself, sufficient time to visit the lakes not lying on the main circuit, Lady and Chittenden Lakes. Visiting both of these desirable lakes and exploring the trailside gems—Vanderburgh, Staniford, and Lillian—lengthens your route to about 16 miles, adds about 700 feet of ascent and descent, and changes its classification to a moderate three-day hike. Alternatively, for some folks, a trip just to Vanderburgh Lake, the first lake you’ll encounter, is a worthy goal in itself, ideal for novice backpackers, day hikers, or those with children.
Permits
Overnight visitors require a wilderness permit for the Fernandez Trailhead (as described), Walton Trailhead (reverse of loop described), or Norris Trailhead (alternative starting point), issued by Sierra National Forest. Pick up your wilderness permit at the Clover Meadow Ranger Station, Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau in Oakhurst, or other Sierra National Forest permit-issuing stations (see “Permits”).
Maps
This trail is covered by the Tom Harrison Ansel Adams Wilderness map (1:79,200 scale), the National Geographic Trails Illustrated #309 Yosemite SE map (1:40,000 scale), and the USGS 7.5-minute series Timber Knob map (1:24,000 scale).
Before glaciers advanced across higher Sierran lands, the Madera Creek basin may have had a large population of giant sequoias.
Best Time
This is classic subalpine Sierran country, and as elsewhere, the trails are mostly snow-free by late June, but mosquitoes keep most visitors away until late July. From then through mid-August, the lakes are optimal for swimming. To avoid crowds and find solitude, try hiking mid-September–mid-October.
Finding the Trail
From the CA 49–CA 41 junction in Oakhurst, drive 3.5 miles north on CA 41 (toward Yosemite) to a junction with Forest Service Road 222, signposted for Bass Lake. Follow FS 222 east 3.4 miles. Beyond, continue straight ahead, but your road is now called Malum Ridge Road (FS 274). Continue east 2.4 miles to a left (north) junction with FS 7 (5S07), Beasore Road.
Paved but windy Beasore Road climbs north, passing Chilkoot Campground at the 4.0-mile mark, followed by a series of dirt roads departing westward. At 7.6 miles beyond the campground, you reach a four-way intersection at Cold Spring Summit, where Sky Ranch Road (FS 6S10X) departs to the left, while turning right leads to a parking area with toilets. Continuing straight ahead, Beasore Road winds another 8.5 miles, going past Beasore Meadows, Jones Store, Mugler Meadow, and Long Meadow before coming to a junction with FS 5S04, opposite Globe Rock, a total of 20.1 miles from the start of FS 7. (FS 5S04 leads north to the Chiquito Lake Trailhead.)
Beyond Globe Rock the road’s condition begins to deteriorate—though hopefully funding will have appeared to resurface it before you drive it. As of mid-2018, numerous giant potholes slowed your progress. Passing a spur to Upper Chiquito Campground, the impressive granite domes named the Balls, and the Jackass Lakes Trailhead, you reach the Bowler Campground after 6.6 miles. Ahead is a series of spur roads leading to trailheads to the right: first the Norris Trailhead (FS 5S86) and just beyond the Fernandez and Walton Trailheads (FS 5S05).
There is much confusion—and probably sloppiness—in the spelling of Vanderburgh Lake in both official and unofficial sources. For years the name was spelled Vandeberg on maps, but the most recent USGS topo maps are using Vanderburgh, matching the spelling of its namesake. However, alternative spellings, including Vandenberg, abound online.
If you have retrieved your wilderness permit in Oakhurst, you should now turn up FS 5S05 and follow it 2.35 miles to its terminus in the large parking area. If you instead need to pick up your permit at the Clover Meadow Ranger Station, you must continue a short distance, passing FS 5S88, which branches south 0.4 mile to Minarets Pack Station. Here you meet the end of paved Minarets Road (FS 4S81), which has ascended 52 paved miles north from the community of North Fork. Though a longer route, it is in better condition than Beasore Road and is a possible return route if you found the Beasore Road potholes too jarring. From this junction, staying left, drive northeast 1.8 miles, now on FS 5S30 to a junction at the Clover Meadow Ranger Station, a grand total of 31.1 miles since you turned onto Beasore Road. Here is the small building where you will pick up your wilderness permit. The entrance to the Clover Meadow Campground is just beyond it, a pleasant campground with piped water, vault toilets, and—amazingly—cell reception! There are also toilets at the trailhead.
Trail Description
Two trails depart from the parking area at the end of FS 5S05, the Walton Trail and the Fernandez Trail. You will be departing along the Fernandez Trail, located along the western side of the parking area, and returning along the Walton Trail, located at the northern tip of the parking area. Both are signposted with their respective names. Departing west along the Fernandez Trail, ▶1 you pass through a typical midelevation Sierran forest: white fir, Jeffrey pine, and lodgepole pine in the flats and draws and scrubby huckleberry oak on open slabs. A gentle ascent across morainal slopes leads to the lower end of a small meadow and meets a junction with an easily missed and little-used trail that meanders 1.15 miles to the Norris Trailhead, while your route bends to the right (0.35 mile). ▶2 Beyond the junction your trail’s gradient becomes a moderate one, and red firs quickly begin to replace white firs. The forest temporarily yields to brush as you struggle up short, steep gravelly switchbacks below a small, exfoliating “dome.” Now entering Ansel Adams Wilderness, you have a steady pull up to a near-crest junction (1.6 miles). ▶3 Merging from the left is steep trail that leads 1.35 miles to the Norris Trailhead. You continue a moderate ascent of the Fernandez Trail for only a few more minutes, then reach a crest junction (1.8 miles). ▶4
OPTION: Lady Lake
▶6 A spur trail takes off south (left) and climbs gently to moderately 0.6 mile to Lady Lake. As you walk along the outlet creek, about halfway to the lake, you will note an unsigned trail departing right away from the creek. From here, right leads to a large campsite above the north shore of the lake, while left leads to the east-shore moraine that juts into the lake, with an even better campsite. If you miss this cryptic junction, don’t worry because you will most certainly realize when you’ve reached the shore of granite-rimmed, 8,908-foot-high Lady Lake. Both of these campsites are ideal for large groups—one of the few subalpine lakes that accommodates many tents without environmental concerns.
This lake’s irregular form, speckled with several boulder islands, makes it a particularly attractive lake to camp at or to visit, especially because it is backdropped by hulking, metamorphic Madera Peak. Like all the lakes you might visit along this hike, Lady Lake has trout. Because it is shallow, it is a good lake for swimming late July–mid-August. Note that some online maps currently assign the name Lady Lake to the smaller lake to the southwest. This is incorrect; Lady Lake is the larger of the two lakes. In addition, the words Madera Lakes now appear across Lady Lake on some online maps. The Madera Lakes, as marked on the 1953 Merced Peak topo map, was a joint term for Lady and Vanderburgh Lakes.
Here the Fernandez Trail continues right, but you branch left toward Vanderburgh Lake, along the start of the Lillian Lake Loop Trail. Heading west toward peaks and lakes, this trail’s next 2 miles are generally easy. Conifers shade your way first past a waist-deep pond, on your right, then later past two often-wet, moraine-dammed, flower-filled meadows; then the trail climbs to a bedrock notch in a granitic crest. Here are your first views of the San Joaquin drainage, including dark-colored, pyramidal-shaped Mount Goddard, nearly 50 miles southeast. On the crest you arc around a stagnant pond, then make a short descent to Madera Creek.
If you plan to camp at very popular Vanderburgh Lake (4.3 miles), ▶5 at 8,650 feet, you could leave the trail here and descend southwest to find some campsites along its east shore. The trail meanwhile curves west above good to excellent campsites along the lake’s north shore. From them, steep, granitic Peak 9,852, on Madera Peak’s northeast ridge, is reflected in the lake’s placid early-morning waters. If you are trying to decide which of the many lakes to camp at, this is the lowest elevation and most forested of the choices, making it more or less appealing based on your predilection. At the west end of the lake, you climb bedrock to the edge of a lodgepole flat that has a junction with a trail to Lady Lake, well worth the easy detour (4.7 miles). ▶6 (See the Option.)
Beyond the Lady Lake Trail junction, your Lillian Lake Loop Trail crosses a lodgepole flat, then climbs a couple of hundred feet on fairly open granitic slabs to a ridge. Here you can stop and appreciate the skyline panorama from the Minarets south to the Mount Goddard area in Kings Canyon National Park. Descending northwest on a moderate to steep gradient, you reach an easily missed junction, where a small sign indicates that you turn left to reach Chittenden Lake (5.4 miles). ▶7 The junction is soon after the gradient has lessened and right where the trail bends farther to the east. The detour to Chittenden Lake will take you 1–2 hours round-trip, but as the highest of the lakes in the vicinity, it is well worth a diversion if you have time; see the Option.
Continuing to the northeast on the Lillian Lake Loop Trail, you go north only about 0.1 mile past the Chittenden Lake Trail junction before you see a Staniford lake. A waist-deep, grass-lined lakelet, this water body is not the Staniford Lake that attracts attention. Instead, continue until you come to a trailside pond atop a broad granitic crest. In this vicinity you can leave the trail and descend southeast briefly cross-country on low-angle slabs to the largest of the Staniford Lakes, lying at 8,708 feet. This is certainly the best lake to swim in, and if any sizable lake along this route will warm up to the low 70s in early August, it will be this one. The great bulk of the lake is less than 5 feet deep, its only deep spot being at a diving area along the west shore. Among the slabs you can find sandy camp spots.
Chittenden Lake
More ponds, still part of the Staniford Lakes cluster, are seen along the northbound Lillian Lake Loop Trail before it dips into a usually dry gully. It then traverses diagonally up along a ridge with many glacier-polished slabs and with outstanding views to the Ritter Range and the entire San Joaquin drainage. You soon cross the ridge, then quickly descend to Lillian Lake’s outlet creek and just beyond a junction to the spur trail around Lillian Lake’s eastern and northern shores (6.15 miles). ▶8
Myriad use trails dive into the beautiful, dense hemlock forest ringing Lillian Lake’s northeastern shore. Camping is prohibited within 400 feet of the northeastern shoreline, but if you continue about 0.25 mile to the north, you will encounter a series of well-used, beautiful sites set a little back from the lake. Because it’s the largest and deepest lake you’ll see along this hike, Lillian Lake is also the coldest, and its large population of trout does attract anglers.
Lillian Lake is the last of the lakes along this loop, and from the lake’s outlet, the trail descends a forested mile east to a two-branched creek with easy fords. After a short, stiff climb over a gravelly knoll, the trail descends to a junction on a fairly open slope. Here the Lillian Lake Loop Trail ends and you rejoin the Fernandez Trail, on which you will turn right, heading south (7.35 miles). ▶9
The forest cover quickly thickens, and the trail soon enters a dense forest glade situated in a shallow trough. You are next routed back onto a ridgeline, an old moraine. Drier and sandier again, pine-mat manzanita and juniper dominate along the moraine crest, which the trail follows to its end before switchbacking back to the drainage below. The next junction you reach is that with the trail up Timber Creek (8.9 miles). ▶10 Though the junction itself is signposted and obvious, the unmaintained trail rapidly deteriorates, helped on its path to oblivion by abundant uncleared tree falls.
Continuing the downward trajectory beneath forest cover, you next reach a junction in a broad sandy flat, where the Fernandez Trail forks right and the Walton Trail leads to the left (9.05 miles). ▶11 Given these two trails lead to the same parking area and both are 3.15 miles in length, it is up to you which you take, though the Walton Trail requires less elevation gain, has more open views, and takes you through all new terrain—hence it is the route described here. Continuing through the open flat, along which there are many camping options, you soon cross Madera Creek. A possible wade under the highest of flows, this crossing quickly becomes a rock hop and will dry out in late summer. To your left (north) is an interesting geologic feature, a dark plug of olivine basalt, which was once part of the throat of a cinder cone. Glaciers removed the cinders but were too feeble to erode the lava. This dark monument is most obvious if you look north after you climb a few short steep switchbacks to an open slope.
OPTION: Chittenden Lake
▶7 Beginning the 1.0-mile-long climb to 9,182-foot-high Chittenden Lake, the trail leads west then northwest from the shelf holding the Staniford Lakes. After climbing open slabs, the trail sidles up to the eastern bank of Shirley Creek. Stepping across the creek, the trail turns sharply south (left), continues briefly under forest cover, and then traverses open slabs. Across here there is no indication of a trail—just continue due south, and before long the lake comes into view.
Chittenden may be the most beautiful of all the lakes in this part of Ansel Adams Wilderness, though Lady and Lillian Lakes offer competition. Though Chittenden’s water temperature does not usually rise above the low 60s, the lake’s three bedrock islands will certainly tempt some swimmers. If there are more than two backpackers in your group, don’t plan to camp at this lake because flat space is really at a premium. The best site is on the ridge east of the lake, boasting absolutely stunning views.
The open views gleaned as you cross this slabby slope are a wonderful way to end your trip, with a vista north to the Yosemite boundary near Post Peak Pass and south to the Silver Divide in the South Fork San Joaquin drainage. Dropping off the bare slabs into open lodgepole forest, the trail trends south, continuing its descending traverse. Stretches are in dry lodgepole pine forest, but interspersed are wetter glades where red fir dominates and drier rocky knobs where manzanita and huckleberry oak replace the trees. Turning right at an old road junction (11.95 miles), ▶12 you quickly reach the trailhead (12.2 miles). ▶13
| ||
▶1 | 0.0 | Start at the Fernandez Trailhead (at end of FS 5S05) |
▶2 | 0.35 | Right at flat spur trail to Norris Trailhead |
▶3 | 1.6 | Right at steep spur trail to Norris Trailhead |
▶4 | 1.8 | Left at Fernandez Trail–Vanderburgh Lake junction |
▶5 | 4.3 | Vanderburgh Lake |
▶6 | 4.7 | Right at Lady Lake junction |
▶7 | 5.4 | Right at Chittenden Lake junction |
▶8 | 6.15 | Right at Lillian Lake junction |
▶9 | 7.35 | Right at Fernandez Trail–Lillian Lake Loop junction |
▶10 | 8.9 | Right at junction with trail up Timber Creek |
▶11 | 9.05 | Left onto Walton Trail at Fernandez–Walton Trails junction |
▶12 | 11.95 | Right at old road junction |
▶13 | 12.2 | Finish at the Walton Trailhead (at end of FS 5S05) |
MILESTONES