Horseshoe Meadow Loop

We drove up to the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead at the end of Horseshoe Meadows Road near Lone Pine California to hike the Horseshoe Meadow Loop Trail, about 4 miles with 300 ft of overall gain around 10,000 ft in the Golden Trout Wilderness in Inyo National Forest. This is a beautiful area with wildflowers in bloom, especially paintbrush! We met many PCT hikers, we also saw a large coyote eyeing a herd of free range cattle in the meadow. Another fabulous day in the Sierras!

For the loop, we went clockwise, hiking through the parking lot to the Mulkey Pass Trail, then the Cutoff Trail to the Trail Pass Trail to the Cottonwood Pass Trail back to the parking area. We started in the pine forest

Trail views through part of Horseshoe Meadow

Looking acorss the meadow to Trail Peak

and in another direction towards Trailmaster Peak and Cirque Peak, a zoom of Cirque Peak

Hiking past the free range cattle in Round Valley, to the far right, a coyote is checking out the herd

another view of the herd

Back in the forest

Near the end of the loop, we cross the other end of Horseshoe Meadow

Near the parking lot, I saw this downed tree whose roots looked like an artistic sun burst

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today