January 13, 2026 - Pan Pt Road

 

Title: January 13, 2026 - Pan Pt Road

Hike Info : Description : Animals

Hike Info:

Type: Snowshoeing 

Trail head: Grant Grove Parking Area

Trail:  Panoramic Point Road

Destination: As far as we could by 2:00pm

Actual Destination:  Ridge before going into meadow before big climb

Distance: 2.44 miles

Start Time: 11:56

End Time:    3:16

Travel Time:  3:19 (0.74 mph)

Moving Time:  1:53  (1.30 mph)

Elevation Rise:  655'

Descent: 558‘

Maximum Elevation: 7,067'

GPS Tracks

Description:

Snowshoes on

Today is full of things which we were going to do, but circumstances had us change our minds. Badger Pass is not open yet, except for Nordic activities such as cross-country skiing and Snowshoeing. But this will be a long day as there is a lot of travel. So we needed to get a start by at least 8:00am. But the forecast for that morning is heavy fog. Not good for an early start.

Thin Snow

That means Sherri can sleep in and I get up at my normal time. But where to go? That morning, I suggested going up to find the Muir Snag-our third attempt. Sherri and I are the only ones going. We leave at ten after 10 and make it up to Grant Grove at 11:15. When we get to the road where I think the Muir Snag is, Forest Service road 13S55, we see a long stretch of dirt. Not very promising. We discussed the situation for 30 seconds and decided to move on.

But where to? Several options were discussed. But then we decided to push ourselves and see how far we can go up the Panoramic Point Road

out of Grant Grove. As we went through Grant Grove, we saw a sign for the Manzanita Trail. This also looks promising, but maybe when we have this a bit more thought out. We have not been up it either on snowshoes or with our hiking boots on. So we keep with the plan.

We park at 11:50. It is a pleasant temperature, in the high 50’s. We start our short walk to the road at 12:05. The first thing I noticed was that the tips of my poles were tapping against the pavement. I guess that the snow is only a couple inches deep. This means that we will see patches of bare ground. This is particularly true when we started off as there is a lot of tree covered in the first eighth of a mile. When we moved out of the tree cover, the snow was not much deeper, but at least when it snowed, it could hit the ground.

Gary on the move

We traveled uphill for about 45 minutes. I start off doing good going uphill-might be that I am getting some of my lung capacity back. Not that we are traveling that fast. But at least there is a steady pace. When 12:45 hits, we also come to the top of one of the ridges and spot a good rock to sit on for lunch. That is what we do. Now we are surrounded by snow. But somehow a moth and bee came to visit us. 

 

 

Sherri climbing

We spent about half an hour sitting on the rock before we decided to move on. The road actually gets a bit steeper. And I take several steps and look like I am waiting for Sherri -in reality, I take my time getting my breathing right before going on. This gets to be the rhythm of my ascent.

 I have set a 2pm turn around time and it is five minutes before that when we get to the top of yet another ridge-definitely not the top of Park ridge as that is another 500’ above us. That will be for another day it looks like. Maybe when I can climb further without being breathless.

As much as we are climbing, you would think there would be some scenic vistas. But that is not so. Plenty of greenery as in the pine trees. Just being out here is reward enough.

 

 

 

We do go up a few feet onto a dry log where we have an energy bar. We relax for a while before heading down. Going down is a lot easier. While the incline was steep coming up, it is not bad going down. One thing which we noticed is that there is less snow than when we went up. While there are the same number of bare spots, the bare spots from this morning are larger. Also the snow is not as deep. 

 

 

About 200’ before we came to the gate for the road, we needed to navigate around a bare spot. I do that very successfully, as does Sherri. But as I was about to regain the road, either my snowshoe caught a stick or I stepped on my left snowshoe. Either way, I went down. Nothing hurt, except my pride. We made it down without incident and back at the car by 3:20.

Now the question is do we want to eat on the way down. Do we want to eat at the DNC? Bear Mountain Pizza again? Eat in Fresno? Or eat at home? Sherri has been wanting this shop off of McCall which she heard about on Channel 30 a year ago. She has been calling it her Cuban place. We go there. It is a sandwich shop called Jon Smith Subs. Turns out it is a chain-all the others are in Texas or beyond. We also got fries with our order-a large amount in a medium request. The Cuban aspect of the place? They have a Cuban sandwich. We get home at 5:20

 

 

Animals