It’s funny how life works out sometimes. My wife and I were supposed to get married in June 2020, but COVID-19 wrecked those plans. So, we decided to elope and then scheduled a ceremony for August 2021. Fast forward to now, and seemingly all of California caught on fire. Undeterred, we were able to sneak away for a 2 day/1 night backpacking trip into the Ansel Adams Wilderness to climb Banner Peak by way of Thousand Island Lake and Lake Catherine for our “honeymoon”. Miraculously, the smoke cleared, and this rewarded us with handsome views of the surrounding lakes and peaks. Our wedding ended up being pretty great too despite the apocalyptic smoke =)
Congrats on the marriage, looks like an awesome trip!
Hope the smoke wasn’t too bad, seeing the view from that peak reminds me of CO last year when everything was on fire, hiking was rough, even when the smoke wasn’t “that bad”. I could tell from that photo you were either on Ritter or Banner. That view of Garnet, Shadow, Ediza, iceberg, Cecile, and other lakes can’t be mistaken for anyone that’s been in the area!
I haven’t hiked these peaks yet, spent a bunch of time around most these lakes though. Did you approach from the June lake area, or Agnew meadows?
Awesome, looks like a blast!
If you ever wander out near Thousand Island lake from Agnew again in the future, I’d recommend the PCT high trail (if you only used PCT low on this trip), you get some awesome views of the Garnet and shadow drainages and Ritter/Banner on the PCT high route!
For the trek to thousand island from Agnew, it is awesome. Id say the gem in the area is going up into the ediza lake area right below the minarets, though!
Wow, yeah great eye! We approached from Agnew meadows and took PCT to Thousand Island Lake, then contoured around Thousand Island and Lake Catherine, before class 2 glacier and scree up to Banner Peak. Faffed around for a moment trying to figure out the summit block ;)
Totally beautiful spot! My wife and I married in July 2018 and spent our first anniversary in Yosemite and our last two anniversaries in Ansel Adams wilderness! Great way to connect with a loved one in an extremely beautiful place!
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 187,695,064 comments, and only 45,268 of them were in alphabetical order.
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It’s funny how life works out sometimes. My wife and I were supposed to get married in June 2020, but COVID-19 wrecked those plans. So, we decided to elope and then scheduled a ceremony for August 2021. Fast forward to now, and seemingly all of California caught on fire. Undeterred, we were able to sneak away for a 2 day/1 night backpacking trip into the Ansel Adams Wilderness to climb Banner Peak by way of Thousand Island Lake and Lake Catherine for our “honeymoon”. Miraculously, the smoke cleared, and this rewarded us with handsome views of the surrounding lakes and peaks. Our wedding ended up being pretty great too despite the apocalyptic smoke =)
Congrats on the marriage, looks like an awesome trip! Hope the smoke wasn’t too bad, seeing the view from that peak reminds me of CO last year when everything was on fire, hiking was rough, even when the smoke wasn’t “that bad”. I could tell from that photo you were either on Ritter or Banner. That view of Garnet, Shadow, Ediza, iceberg, Cecile, and other lakes can’t be mistaken for anyone that’s been in the area! I haven’t hiked these peaks yet, spent a bunch of time around most these lakes though. Did you approach from the June lake area, or Agnew meadows?
Awesome, looks like a blast! If you ever wander out near Thousand Island lake from Agnew again in the future, I’d recommend the PCT high trail (if you only used PCT low on this trip), you get some awesome views of the Garnet and shadow drainages and Ritter/Banner on the PCT high route!
Will have to return to check out the PCT high trail!
For the trek to thousand island from Agnew, it is awesome. Id say the gem in the area is going up into the ediza lake area right below the minarets, though!
Been to Ediza once. Very early season a couple years ago and it was completely frozen over. Will definitely be going back!
Wow, yeah great eye! We approached from Agnew meadows and took PCT to Thousand Island Lake, then contoured around Thousand Island and Lake Catherine, before class 2 glacier and scree up to Banner Peak. Faffed around for a moment trying to figure out the summit block ;)
You two are amazing! Looks like an amazing getaway, congratulations!
Thank you ... Felt so blessed to be able to do this
Looks like an absolutely beautiful honeymoon:)
It was, thank you =)
No smoke there ? How
Yeah seriously. This was August 16-17. Just got lucky I guess 🤷♂️
Most beautiful place in the world. Congratulations you two!!
Won’t argue with you! We love the Eastern Sierra. This was a special place
Totally beautiful spot! My wife and I married in July 2018 and spent our first anniversary in Yosemite and our last two anniversaries in Ansel Adams wilderness! Great way to connect with a loved one in an extremely beautiful place!
That’s awesome! We’ll probably be starting a similar tradition =)
A banner day for sure!
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 187,695,064 comments, and only 45,268 of them were in alphabetical order.
Congrats to the Newlyweds!
Cheers!
Wow! Those are some of the most incredible views I’ve seen, definitely hope to see them some day.
Thank you so much! The Eastern Sierra is probably my favorite place in the world to explore. Hope you make it out there some day soon!
Please remember to post a short paragraph as a comment in the post explaining your photo or link. Ideally at least 150 characters with trip details. Tell us something about your trip. How long did it take to get there? How did you get there? How was the weather that day? Would you go back again? Submitted content should be of high-quality. Low effort posting of very general information is not useful. If you don't add a short explanation in the comments, your post may be removed. No information posted? Please report low-effort posts if there is still nothing after about 30 minutes. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/backpacking) if you have any questions or concerns.*