Note: make sure you check snow/ice conditions before you venture. The snowy section at Shepherd Pass can be deadly. It's a very steep ravine. If you call, there's nothing to stop you until you hit the boulders down below. Using crampons doesn't make a difference if you roll down. And remember that going down is always harder than coming down (gravity) so making it to the top of the pass doesn't mean you'll be ok going down.

Shepherd Pass route description

There are two trailheads for the Shepherd Pass trail, one for hikers and the other one for stock. The one for stock comes first, right before the bridge, and it has a large parking area. The reason to hike the stock trail is if you don't feel like driving your car to the hikers' trailhead (which is an adventure in itself). The stock trail joins the official trail about 2 kms upstream. The catch is that you add an additional creek crossing (not trivial) but you save driving time and you don't add much of a distance.

The trail runs along the Symmes Creek canyon. This sandy trail almost immediately crosses Symmes Creek four times. (The Symmes Creek comes down from Mt Bradley, and a south fork comes down from a ridge between Mt Bradley and Mt Keith). If the water is too high, you may skip the second and third crossings by bushwhacking along the right bank of the creek. I have done these multiple creek crossings many times between June and September and never got my shoes wet, but sometimes it takes several minutes of scouting to find a good place to cross.

After the fourth crossing, the trail begins the steep climb up Mt Begin (60+ switchbacks). At the top, you reach a "saddle" (2770m), which is actually a series of three saddles, and cross to the other side into the Shepherd Creek canyon. From the saddle one can see Mt Williamson's north face sticking out above the hills in the south (Mt Williamson then disappears for most of the hike). Then you walk down (a 160m of altitude loss) until a fifth creek crossing (dry in summer) and then a sixth one (at the bottom of a little waterfall). You have reached (2620m) Mahogany Flats (technically that's the area way below by the creek, that the trail never quite touches).

The new canyon in front of you is surrounded by waterfalls. The wall in front of you up the canyon, topped by trees, is where Anvil Camp is (3130m). Shepherd Pass is further up, at the top of the mountains that you see in front of you.

The trail starts climbing up very long switchbacks. You are about to reach Anvil Camp when you cross the seventh creek (usually dry in summer). Anvil Camp is at the top of the huge waterfall in front of you, to the left of the trail's route.

Anvil Camp is shady and foresty. Yet another creek (this one wilder than all the previous ones) needs to be crossed after Anvil Camp.

Anvil Camp is a popular place to camp but actually infested with mice. Campfires are forbidden. Much better to camp a bit after it, out of the forest.

Two colossal mountains can be seen to the north: the ridge leading to Junction Peak (4233m), slightly northwest of Shepherd Pass, and Mt Keith (4260m), northwest of Anvil Camp or straight north of the "Pothole".

The trail after Anvil Camp is a brutal series of steep switchbacks up rocky terrain. The trail winds up to the right of a snow patch (many hikers lose the trail at this point and head south instead of west) and, after Pothole (another popular camping spot, recognizable because of the green swampy meadow), it reaches Shepherd Pass (3672m). The ascent to the pass is even more brutal, not only very steep but also on loose scree (and often snow till august).

(The route to Shepherd Pass is the one in the snow).

When you reach Shepherd Pass, you see Mt Tyndall in front of you (south).

Look left across the lake (east): that's the direction where Mt Williamson is, but you still cannot see it. Abandon the trail, cross the creek and walk southeast (left) up the ridge past the lake and you will see it emerge from the ridge in all its sinister glory. (If, instead, you keep following the trail, you will be hiking north-west, among beautiful landscape, passing, towards Midway, Milestone and Table mountains, and eventually hitting the Muir trail, but totally unrelated to Mt Williamson).
As you walk up that southeastern ridge above Shepherd Pass, passing another little lake on the left (that you might or might not see), the mountain on your right is Mt Tyndall and Mt Williamson is beginning to emerge in front of you.

You are constantly walking left of Mt Tyndall. Keep left of the rocky area and you should meet the old sign about the July 16 closure (probably removed by the time you read this because the closure has been abolished). The trail from Shepherd Pass to this point is sandy but solid, and the grade is not strenuous at all. Eventually you reach the rim overlooking the Williamson Bowl: a towering boulder on your left, the four lakes, the middle "bridge" that leads to the foot of the mountain, and the mountain itself in front of you. (Things are actually more complicated, but that's how it looks like from the rim).

Now you descend into the Williamson Bowl. (In July there is usually little snow in the "bowl" and little snow on Williamson itself). This is about 3kms past Shepherd Pass.

The so called Williamson Bowl is actually a series of little hills that separate the lakes. Most people descend into the bowl (losing about 100m of altitude) and then walk in between the lakes. As you descend, it looks like there is a "bridge" leading from the wall of the rim to the center of the bowl.

Alas, this bridge is far from a simple straight line up. There are several gaps that create separate hills. It is your choice if you prefer a straight line that goes up and down or if you want to try to keep a stable altitude by walking around the hills. The terrain is mostly rocky. Snow might actually be a godsend in the bowl. On your left (east) you have views of Owens Valley. The Williamson Bowl is about 3kms wide, but you'll probably walk more than 3kms because nobody follows a straight line.

When you reach the fourth and highest lake (3733m, second on your right), coast it to the left (east) and start ascending towards a "black stain" (36.65432N, W118.31733W) left by the snow. (There is usually a snow patch on its right, in which case you want to aim for in between the two). Most likely you will find a use trail created by all the hikers who do the same thing.

The moment you reach the altitude of the black stain, you will notice a wide chute that goes straight up diagonally above the black stain.

If unsure, you are probably not in the chute: the chute is about 20m wide, thus hard to miss. It only climbs 300 vertical meters (and is probably only 500m long) but the grade is a killer. The scree is not as bad as often advertised (in fact, one can almost always use stable rocks to go up faster) but the grade is indeed demanding. (Most recent descriptions of the scree are probably copying descriptions written decades ago: today most of the scree is at the bottom). The summit is physically south of all of this, invisible all the way.
Two thirds into the chute, a tall boulder on the left side of the chute is the key milestone to reach the summit:


.
The chimney is to the right. (Contrary to descriptions i have seen, the boulder does not stop you from continuing up, and it is smaller than other boulders encountered before, so visual recognition could be a great help). If one continues straight, a view of Owens Valley appears, but you just made your life harder because you walked in the opposite direction from the summit, i.e. east instead of west. If you recognized that boulder, look right and you should see a narrow chimney, about 20 meters tall.

The bottom of this chimney is a good place to drop the backpack. The chimney is vertical enough that it requires using your hands, but it is relatively easy class-3 climbing. It just requires a bit of thinking (especially coming down). One emerges to the summit plateau (quite a change of landscape from the chute). The summit to the left (east) is clearly a false "eastern" summit. The 200m ridge to the right leads to a second false "western" summit (but worth the ten-minute climb for the view north) sitting on top of a pile of white boulders.

The real summit is 200m to the left (south) of this western summit and is just a pile of darker and smaller boulders. It is not visible when you emerge from the chimney. It can be reached from the western summit in ten minutes. (I have read this section described as an "easy scramble" or "short walk": at that altitude nothing is easy or fast, and the boulders are truly annoying regardless of how little tired you are).

See my pictures for more details.

(click on map)

(click on map)

(click on map)

Approximate distances and times:

• Trailhead: (1920 m)
• First creek crossing: 25'
• Fourth creek crossing: 40' [30']
• Saddle: 2770m, 5 kms (2 hrs 15') [2h 39']
• Fifth Creek crossing (usually dry), end of downhill: 6 kms (3 hrs) [3h4']
• Sixth Creek crossing (never dry): 2620m, 7 kms (3 hrs 15') [3h20']
• Nice rock in shade and camping sites (3h 45')
• Big pyramidal boulder by trail (4h 25') [4h34']
• Last creek crossing before Anvil (sometimes dry in summer): (5 hours) [4h 52']
• Anvil Camp: 3.130 m (5h 15' hrs) [5h 6']
• Pothole: 3.200m (5h 45') [6h 27']
• Shepherd Pass: 3.672 m, 18 kms (7 hrs 15') [7h 42']
• July 16 sign and rim of bowl: 3.900 m, 21 kms (8 hrs 30') [9h12']
• Bridge inside bowl: 3720m [9h27']
• Fourth lake: 3733m
• Black stain, 3 kms from rim (10 hrs) [10h57']
• Chimney (12h30'hrs) [13h12']
• Summit plateau [13h20']
• Mt Williamson: 4.384 m (13 hrs) [13h42']

North Bairs Creek route

This is the most direct way to the summit, and possibly the easiest, especially downhill. This is a totally cross-country route. (On the Internet i have found several warnings that this route is forbidden in the summer, but i saw absolutely no signs saying so. As far as i can tell, the route is perfectly legal).

To reach the trailhead, take Foothill Rd like going to the Shepherd Pass trailhead, but don't turn right at the sign for Shepherd Pass trailhead. Continue straight, past the Shepherd Creek sign. Eventually the road climbs and reaches a point where a creek physically runs through the road. That's the North Bairs Creek. There isn't much of a parking lot. On the northern side of the creek, there is a use-trail that leads over the ridge. Stay on the ridge and climb whenever you can. The creek comes down from very deep gorges that would be very difficult to hike. You are better off staying high on the north ridge until you find a notch to climb to the other side. There are many notches. It depends on how high you are willing to climb.

The higher and lower notches:

and seen from the other side (coming back down):

The lower notch is easier to reach but involves traversing to the left and on the other side it plunges into the creek's canyon. The higher notch requires more climbing but on the other side it's easier to continue without losing too much elevation, and it involves no bushwhacking.

Once on the other side, you need to maintain your elevation as much as possible while walking upstream. If you lose elevation, you will have to bushwhack. Staying at the same elevation may involve a bit of class-2 climbing and a lot of slipping on the sandy gulch. Up above the canyon is the cirque. The route should be obvious: at some point the creek forks, and the left branch comes straight down from the cirque. From the notch it looks like a "ramp" leading up (southwest) to the cirque.

The junction between the two forks is a scenic waterfall. Ideally you want to cross over after that waterfall. Crossing the creek is trivial because there are logs just about everywhere. Once on the other side, coast the left branch up the class 1-2 "ramp". At some point the ramp flattens and the vegetation increases dramatically. The creek makes a bend to the right and then the slope resumes, possibly even steeper. Ascending above the tree line, you are faced with a huge massif. Best is probably to climb it from the right (northern) less loose side. Then you enter the cirque. After going around the two prominent ridges, you reach the bottom of the eastern couloir, very visible from the freeway. This snow field is too steep to be "hiked". Without crampons and an ice axe, it's dangerous and probably very time consuming. On the right (northern) side there is a narrower and humbler couloir. Its snow base is usually higher on that one because it faces south.

Up this couloir the route splits. Take the right turn where the grade is more affordable. This chute is the chute that leads to the east summit (its pyramid should be already visible from the bottom of the chute). This is another very steep snow field, but about 1/4th the way you should notice a diagonal chute to the left. This chute is always filled with snow but you can easily bypass the snow with easy class 2-3 moves. In 15 minutes this diagonal chute takes you to just below the summit plateau. Scramble up the scree and you'll reach the summit plateau, with the summit appearing clearly in the northwest. This route has no bushwhacking.

Landmarks:

• Notch: 2 hours
• Crossing the creek (and waterfall): 4h
• Green Plateau: 6h 15'
• Bottom of cirque massif: 7h 45'
• Foot of the couloirs: 9h 15'
• Split of East Summit chute: 10h 45'
• Emerging to below the summit plateau: 12h
• Summit plateau: 12h 15'
• Summit: 12h 45'

George Creek route

There are two ways to reach the trailhead. The orthodox way is to drive west on Market Street/ Onion Valley Rd in Independence and turn left onto Foothill Rd. Turn left as if you are going to the Shepherd Pass trailhead (see directions for Shepherd Pass) but at the sign for Shepherd Pass keep going straight (south) instead of turning right to go to that trailhead. After about 10 kms and two creek crossings (feasible with regular cars), you reach a fork: if you bear right, you go to the South Bairs Creek trailhead, if you go left you get to another fork. At that fork, turn right to reach the George Creek trailhead. Needless to say, it takes a lot of patience to drive all that distance on a bad unpaved unmaintained road, and chances are that something has happened to a section of the road, so you will have to drive all the way back. I personally discourage this route.

You can also get to the same trailhead from the Manzanar National Monument. As of 2011 there was absolutely no sign to get to the George Creek trailhead. Some websites and books talk about a road that starts north of Manzanara, but that road has collapsed and has not been fixed (as of august 2011). Just north of mile 66 on highway 395 pay attention to the bridge marked as 48-14R (this is a very visible sign). If you get to Manzanar, you went too far. Just after this bridge, turn left into an unnamed exit ramp (waypoint II) This is paved for just one minute and bends left. Right after the bend, the pavement ends and you're on your own. You get to a triangle-shaped junction (waypoint HH). Turn right and you'll get to a four-way kjunction (GG). Turn left and you'll drive over a bridge (15 Tons sign). Turn immediately right at the colossal three-way junction (FF). There used to be a gate but you probably won't notice it. Drive to the end of this road where the other gate used to be and turn right (EE): you will be passing three roads on your right marked for Los Angeles City. Ignore them. Turn right only when there is no Los Angeles sign. You will be coasting barbed wire on your right. Turn left when you can (DD). Now you are on George Creek road or 14S03. Stay there for a long time. This is a rocky road but i have done it with a low-clearance vehicle all the way. At the end (CC) you get to a three-way junction with a collapsing sign. You can only read the bottom (Onion Valley Rd) but the top used to say George Creek (this sign had disappeared in 2014). Turn left (if you turn right, that's the beginning of what is known as Foothill Rd). This gets more and more sandy. Eventually you reach a point (AA) where only a 4WD vehicle can continue, but you are sio close to the trailhead that it is not worth it. Park there and camp there. From there it's a 15-minute walk to the end of the road, which is the creek itself.

Waypoints according to my old GPS:

• AA: 36.64063/118.24339
• CC: 66577/22740
• DD: 70818/15814
• EE: 69374/15497
• FF: 70214/13837
• GG: 70301/13982
• HH: 70633/12986
• II: 70903/13116

See also these pictures

George Creek drains the southeast slope of Mt Williamson. The route is all class 1 and 2.

For a description of the George Creek route going uphill, see the Mt Barnard page. After you cross the George Creek (look for "the jump" on that page) and start heading towards Mt Williamson along its north branch, stay on the right. This is a very wide drainage (even further up at the top where it collides with the Williamson Bowl). There are several chutes on that side of the drainage and almost all of them take you to the ridge. One favorite is the "red chute". If you follow the tree line to the right as you enter the drainage of the north branch, you will enter the red chute. This chute is steep but never more than class 2. It intersects other chutes at about one-hour intervals. It takes about 4 hours to reach the Bairs plateau (the glacier/lake where the South and North Bairs are born).

The most difficult part comes here: there is a wall to climb in order to get from the Bairs plateau to the summit plateau. Easier is the right side, but a lot of zigzag required.

Once on the summit plateau you still have to find the right summit, which is less easy that you'd think (unless there are hikers making noise at the top). The grand total from the moment i entered the red chute was about 6 hours. Pictures of the red chute from different angles:

Further up the north branch drainage there's a place where you can climb to the ridge relatively easily. Here are these two routes:

The steep drainage of north George Creek:

Downhill you are better off taking one of the steep chutes from the Bairs plateau. From the summit head down trying to stay on the ridge. Eventually you will get down to the Bairs plateau. The moment you hit this plateau there is a wide chute on your right. This is probably the fastest way to get down.

This took me an hour, all the way down to the first little creek.

Then stay left of the water and circle around the mountain heading southeast and eventually just east. If you get too close to the water, the bushwhacking gets intense (and the mosquitoes may become ferocious). If you stay too high on the mountain, however, you have to deal with sand and rocks. At some point the canyon narrows so much that you have to stay near the water. You can find "use trails" on both sides of the creek. Most likely, you will keep wading the creeks to find better terrain. Climb high on the southern side to find the best use-trail (as of 2013). When the canyon makes a right turn and forces you to wade the creek again to the other (northern) side, you are less than one hour from the end. You should be able to find better and better marked "use trails", as people started exploring this area since 2012 (when the summer hiking ban was lifted). Just remember that the dirt road where your car is parked is on the northern side of the creek (so if you are staying on the right side of the creek while going down you may miss it). If you are on the northern side of the creek during the "bends", it comes as a surprise when the use trail turns sandy and then it gets wider and then you realize you are on a dirt road with signs about camping.

South Bairs Creek route

Yet another route to Mt Williamson is via the South Bairs Creek. It requires less bushwhacking than the George Creek route although it is more complicated than the North Bairs Creek.

The trailhead for Bairs Creek is located 3 km north of the one for George Creek. If you are coming from Manzanara, follow the above directions to go to the George Creek trailhead but instead of turning left at waypoint CC turn right and continue about 1 km until you pass a cattle grid.

It is not trivial for low-clearance vehicles to reach this point. Right after the cattle grid there is a steep road on your left. Yet another collapsed sign reads 14S104A. That 500 meter road takes you to a small parking lot with a lonely tree.

These narrow, sandy 500 meter road is passable only by 4WD vehicles. (Note: you don't actually see the South Bairs crossing Foothill Rd because it goes under a culvert). There was a use-trail on the southern bank of the creek (left side when you are heading upstream), but today this "use trail" is rarely visible. The honest truth is that there is no sign and there is no trail. From the very beginning you won't know which one is the use-trail. Walk straight a little bit and it will appear. The first 200-300 meters are unusual, as the trail stays on the slippery (southern) slope of the creek but then it does what it will tend to do for the rest of the route: it follows the creek upstream staying about 50 meters highers in broad flat places (horizontally flat, vertically very steep) and it is usually located at the edge of these broad passages. You lose it in the forest but you can locate it again if you pay attention to the broad passages. If you are slipping, then you are either too low or too high and you can't find the broad passages. The trail is rugged and steep. Even where it is well marked, you will be tripping over all sort of garbage: scree, gravel, dead wood, roots, boulders. It never leaves creek trail too far, but the creek is unreachable because of the very steep banks.

The first landmark is the spherical spire that you need to climb via a short class-3 notch.

On the other side the use-trail is actually easier to follow. The next landmark is the first major split in the creek. The left side goes straight east towards the vast cirque in front of you, the right side climbs a forested chute. You have multiple choices. The use-trail, which at this point is just a groove, goes straight towards a pre-cirque chute that climbs gently towards the ridge of the cirque.

This route takes you to the George Creek route, but first you need to bypass several peaklets. It is basically a way to do the George Creek route without the bushwhacking. The second option (mainly if you want more shade and you enjoy rock climbing) is to climb the forested branch of the creek and reach the northern ridge, the ridge that separates the South Bairs from the North Bairs.

This ridge has an infinite number of peaklets. Stay lower, to the left of them, and you should find a way to hit the top of the cirque much closer to the summit. The catch is that whenever you climb too high you may find yourself in class-4 chimneys. Follow the animals: if you see animal tracks along that ridge, along that ridge they are probably going where you are going, and they know how to avoid the chimneys. The corret route stays lower than the ridge and involves a number of gentle ups and downs. It eventually hits the George Creek route much higher, just before the cirque of the North Bairs (of course).

The third option is to continue all the way to the cirque, a grueling bouldering uphill walk, I don't think any of the chutes at the very end of the cirque are feasible (if they have snow, that might depend on your crampons). The chute that is certainly feasible is the one that comes right after the waterfall, This very broad chute can be climbed both from the right and from the left. Again, don't overdo as there is no need to get to the very peak of that chute: once you reach relatively flat terrain, turn left and follow the animal route, up and down for a bit, and then eventually straight up the ridge to join the George Creek route.

• Spherical spire 2h
• Tunnel rock 3h
• Split 4h20'
• Top of foresty branch 7h
• George Creek route 10h
• Bottom of last headwall 11h
• Summit plateau 12h
• Summit 12h45'

• Spherical spire 2h
• Tunnel rock 3h
• Split 4h20'
• Waterfall 7h
• George Creek route 9h
• Bottom of last headwall 10h
• Summit plateau 11h
• Summit 11h45'

• Spherical spire 2h
• Tunnel rock 3h
• Split 4h20'
• Pre-cirque chute: 7h
• George Creek route 8h
• Bottom of last headwall 11h
• Summit plateau 12h
• Summit 12h45'

For all southern routes

This is a 30-40 degree wall of scree that is not fun to climb, especially after such long approaches. The alternative is to head straight up the southern face through this chute:

At some point it should be obvious that there is a way out of the chute to the right, and that drops you just about at the top of the summit plateau, passed the headwall. From there it is still a long and grueling walk and class-2 climb to the summit but nothing too scary.

Shepherd Creek route description

Despite a big sign that you are entering "bear country", there have been no reports of bears anywhere on that trail (and i would love to see any bear who decides to come down to the hottest desert north of Death Valley). Bear canisters are not required if you camp anywhere along that trail (as of 2008). I am not sure why the sign says that "you are entering bear country". It is way too hot in the summer for a bear to survive, and even in other seasons there seems to be no evidence that bears ever used this canyon. If it's a hot day and you have anything smelly in the car, you might just leave it there or hang it from the only tree in the parking lot. Check with the rangers what is the current recommendation (it changes every year depending on which person you talk to). Just don't leave it under your car because ferocious ants and rodents will get to it.

Nearby peaks

Mt Tyndall (4273 m) can be hiked from Shepherd Pass in two/three hours.

Caltech Peak, Mt Keith and Junction Peak can also be hiked from Anvil Camp or Pothole or Shepherd Pass.

Permits

All trailheads: