Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Smoke in Kings Canyon from Sheep Fire

I was hiking to Mount Rixford on Saturday, 8-15-2010 on a clear and beautiful morning. When we were going down Kearsarge Pass we met a gentlemen that had been camping there, and he said that it had been very smoky the day before, and that the morning wind had blown it out. He said that the smoke would soon return.

Sure enough when we were on the summit of Rixford as 12:00PM the smoke started coming back up the valley. Lots of it. Anyway, when we were hiking back up to Kearsarge Pass in the smoke one of the pack mule cowboys told us that this was going to happen for the next several days. He said the smoke is coming from a fire at Cedar Grove which is the Sheep Fire. Some of the hikers were turning around at Kearsarge Pass and going elsewhere, but others continued on to Whitney and other such places.

At any rate, I didn't see this information up here so I though I would share.

Click here for the trip report and photos

I just got back from a week doing the Cirque Crest high route from Granite Pass and then over Pinchot to get back to Roads End via Woods Creek, and on some days the smoke came up the canyons pretty thick in the afternoon. Fortunately, when we were in the Marion Lake/Lake Basin area it was crystal clear.