by AlmostThere » Thu Aug 29, 2019 1:20 pm
That's a less populated corner of the park, and a lot of the trail is in the forest. The pass will probably have views. Places you can get above the treetops occur here and there. When camping at Ostrander Lake, for example, we hiked along Horse Ridge and had some good views of the peaks to the north and the back of Half Dome.
There is generally plenty of water -- I carry 2-3 liters depending on distances between water sources as shown on the map. Streams shown as solid blue line are generally flowing year round, especially in a good snow year like this year. Camping is easy - 100 feet from water and/or the trail is legal camping, closer is illegal and while you will find fire rings closer to water that's generally not Leave No Trace and should be avoided. Don't build new fire rings - use existing ones. Give the campfire ring removal teams a break.