Appreciation post: That 5-year difference on the High Sierra Trail blew my mind

I hiked the High Sierra Trail back in 2019 and hit Whitney Portal in 7 days. Last month I did it again and saw so much change. The Kaweah River crossing was way wider this time, and the Whitney summit had way less snow than I remembered. The fire damage from 2020 near the Kern Canyon still shows too. Has anyone else noticed how much the trail conditions shift after a big wildfire season?

3 comments

3 Comments

carter.joseph7d ago

Saw a documentary that talked about how the Kaweah drainage is basically a fast moving river now compared to ten years ago lol. That fire scar near Kern Canyon is going to take decades to fully come back.

ivan7747d ago

@carter.joseph I actually heard that river flows are way down from historical averages in that area.

michaelgrant7d ago

Have you actually looked at the stream gauge data for the Kaweah lately? I've been following it for a few years now and @ivan774 is right, the flows have been dropping pretty steadily. That fire scar near Kern Canyon is a huge part of the problem, it messes with how the snowpack melts and how fast the water actually gets to the river. You can't just go by what a documentary says, you gotta check the real time numbers from the state. The recovery on that scar is going to take a long time, probably more than a decade, and the river is going to be different until then. It's not a fast moving river now, it's just flashier after storms because there's nothing to slow the water down.