8:15 am
We started at about 7:30 am from the Devils Postpile Ranger Station trailhead, and took the King Creek trail. Some 45 minutes later, we could see from the trail, for the first time, the peaks above Anona Lake (center and left).

9:30 am
Fern Lake is about 5 miles from Devils Postpile. The trail has one steep uphill portion, but it is interesting and well maintained. In contrast, the trail between Fern and Anona Lakes becomes faint and then completely disappears. However, with a good map, it is easy to find your way around. From the small hill just east of Anona Lake, a view of the lake opens up (lower right corner), and the peaks of the Iron Mountain crest begin to appear. Anona Lake is at the 9100-feet level (2773 meters).

According to Robert (R.J.) Secor, The High Sierra: Peaks Passes and Trails, there is a class-2 route from Anona Lake to the crest, but we looked...

...and looked...

...and looked, and didn't see any easy passage over the rocks surrounding the southwest shore of the lake. Perhaps next time, we'll actually try, not just look.

11:15 am
A cross country ascent, with some simple rock hopping and route finding, brought us to the Gertrude Lake plateau, and then to beautiful and remote Ashley Lake.

Early in the season, the snowfield on the left usually extends all the way down to the lake. Jules Eichorn and Walter A. Starr (Sr) were the first to use this snowfield to get to the top in 1935.

Note added: In July 2008, Dom and I came back to this area, and climbed to the top of Iron Mountain via the Ashley Lake snowfield.

The summit of Iron Mountain (11148 feet; 3398 meters) above Ashley Lake (9543 feet; 2909 meters).

We walked to the opposite side of the lake, then followed a stream uphill to a charming valley hidden in this picture by the ridge on the right.

At the top of the valley, we see a low pass to the other (west) side of the Ritter Range, which we can't resist (center of the picture).

(See topo map showing our skirting around the edges of Iron Mountain).

Near the top of the pass. The valley is below us, and Ashley Lake can be seen at the right edge. Mammoth Mountain dominates the view to the east.

The pass seems to be unnamed, but I will refer to it as "Ashley Lake Pass". It tops at about 10600 feet (3230 meters). Could be described as a simple class-2.

The other side of the pass is simple class-2 again. This is the view south, towards the Iron Lake creek. Iron Lake itself is hidden behind a ridge.

We dropped some 400 feet down the west side of the pass, hoping that we would see Iron Lake, but it remained hidden behind the ridge. A nice view towards mountains on the Yosemite border opens to the west. Iron Creek rushes down to the canyon of the North Fork of the San Joaquin River. On the other side of the river is the Hemlock Crossing Trail and Foerster Peak, which I visited earlier in the season.

West side of Ashley Lake Pass. Time to go back.

West side of Ashley Lake Pass, near its top.

Back on the east side. The green stripe north of us denotes a stream coming down from the plateau.

View south from the plateau, back towards Iron Mountain. The terraces beneath the summit ridge reminded us of ancient Inca ruins.

Another view south toward the Ashley Lake watershed.

A small lake on the plateau is the source of the stream that we noticed from the pass. The low ridge in the background is the last obstacle on the way to the Holcomb Lake valley.

We are ready to tackle the low ridge to the north.

Holcomb Lake from the ridge. A chute just below the ridge (left) is not the way to get down. It ends in difficult terrain. Instead, follow the ridge northeast until you can see the entire slope down to the green meadow and the stream below.

This is the route down that we followed.

Rest at Holcomb Lake (9471 feet; 2889 meters). The steep chute above the northwest side of the lake leads directly to Beck Lakes. It is not as steep on the other (north) side.

Back on maintained trail. Near Noname Lake, on our way down from Holcomb Lake, we have our last clear view of Iron Mountain. There is about 1.5 miles from Holcomb to Beck's cabin.

Not much is left of the old cabin, allegedly built by C. J. Beck in late 1800's. Another six(?) miles (uphill, then downhill) from here to our car at Devils Postpile.