After last weekend’s fantastic trips to Robin Lakes and the Enchantments, a slight change of pace for this weekend’s trip to Gothic Basin. But, no less rewarding - Gothic Basin is a beautiful place.
I hit the trail by 6:30am to beat the crowds, and was largely successful (only saw a few people camped at Gothic Basin). The trail up is quite weird: moments of furious activity are followed by gentle rambles past waterfalls and streams, and then the cycle resumes... I walked up with the sun trying mightily to exert its influence over the fog that was hanging around (the fog winning for the most part). This obscured most of the views going up, however Gothic Basin seemed all the more mysterious.
Gothic Basin was all brightness and shadow: the brightness from colorful heather and mottled rocks, and shadow from the fog. For me, the nicest part of Gothic Basin is the part before Foggy Puddle. Gentle rambles past lovely ponds lead to an overlook of waterfalls falling 900ft down to Weden Lake. Foggy Puddle and Foggy Lake lived up to their names: Del Campo was obscured throughout, and Gothic Peak continually played hide and seek.
As luck would have it, it cleared up as I was heading down, and I was able to catch the views of Silver Peak I missed coming up.
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