My wife, Margaret, and I made our first back-country journey (without kids) together in 23 years this past August. We chose Gardiner Basin in Kings Canyon National Park as our destination. The basin is one of the few places that we missed over the years of hiking before and after kids. I must say that I was stunned at the beauty of the entire basin. This particular lake was the near the top of the basin, and had amazing light the evening before, and then again the next morning. Mount Gardiner is across the lake. This is one of the hardest peaks in the Sierra, featuring a knife-edge class 4 route on the easiest ascent. (First done in 1905!) Later Dylan and I came back and established a new class 5 line on the north side of the mountain shown here.
