My g/f and I just got back from a 3 night camping trip in the golden trout wilderness located in the southern sierra mountains in California - monache meadows. its pretty far back in the wilderness, about 14 miles from a road and even there is in the middle of nowhere. the trail is the monache jeep trail, its rated easy and i drove most of it in 2 wheel drive. you do need 4 wheel drive to get back here, its not really doable in 2 wheel drive cars. you end up at the south fork of the kern river, full of trout, we caught lots. the trail takes you though the mountains into a meadow where the river flows through, then you cross the river and there are camp spots along the river in the forest. the temps during the day were 80 degrees, but at night i think it was high 30s!! nice!! this is primitive camping, with no facilities or water, pack it in and pack it out. there were only a few other campers there, it was so nice and quiet back there in the middle of nowhere. your pretty much on your own out there so you have to plan accordingly.

kern river



at camp

out tent was right on the river

behind our tent


fish we caught behind out tent



monache trail

typical conditions of the trail, not that hard

there is one fun obstacle but i had the cargo hitch on the back so didn't get to play on it, went around

man made dam about a 1/2 mile up from camp to keep the brown trout out of the river below

kern river out in the meadow

camp





there are lots of cows and bulls everywhere in the meadow.

Man, that is beautiful country. Glad you took the pics. And, dang you guys camp alot. Makes me jealous.

Jeff

Awesome. That whole area is nice. A great place to just hang out.

Beautifull, even the fish are pretty!

We have been up there before in the Jeep and with dirt bikes. We have camped at Troy Meadows and Kennedy Meadows, all are very nice. You guys camped out in the wild which is always fun as you can not get that kind of camping atmosphere in a regular campground. That fish you caught looks like a golden trout which are native fish. Turd is right, you guys camp a lot. Did you take any more of that good Dusty Trail Ale?

yeah we were way out there, i was concerened about black bears, and brought ropes to hang everything. i talked to the ranger and she said the bears are shy and its not like at kings canyon or yellowstone where they eat your food and stuff. i talked the few other campers there and they were not hanging food ans stuff. i ended up not doing that and we had no problems, didn't see any bears.

no dusty trail ale, we drank it all at big bear!

Looks like a fun place. Might have to make it out there one of these days.

Seriously wish we could have joined you guys. But glad that we didn't try because the problems on the jeep keep popping up. Now have a coolant leak and I think a wheel bearing is going out. Hopefully we get these things sorted out this week and will be ready for the Red Rock Canyon trip at the end of the month!

Hope you can make it. Nothing worse than issues popping up before a trip

I signed up just to say thanks for this post!

I've made 3 trips up there so far this summer and have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the jeep trail. With all the work they've been doing I'm guessing it's in pretty decent shape? I'm heading up again this weekend and can't wait to finally get back to the Monache area, I camped in that exact spot for the last week of deer season last fall.

Thanks again for taking the time to post and for the pics.

this was my first trip up there so i don't know what the trail was like before. it was eroaded and rutted out in spots and a few rocky spots, but easy for my jeep. there were a few other vehiciles that made it there, like an acura awd mdx i think lol.

have fun