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| ABOVE LACONTE LAKE |
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| POND BELOW THE MORAT LAKES |
Naturalist Basin is located about four miles from the Highline Trailhead along the Mirror Lake Highway. To get to the basin, you will need to turn off the Highline Trail after about three miles and head north. After a mile, the trail forks in front of a large meadow and stream. If you stay to the left the trail will lead you to the Morat Lakes. If you cross the stream and head right, the trail will take you to Jordan Lake. Whatever trail you don't take on the way up you can take on the way down.
When I approached the fork in the trail I chose to head left towards the Morat Lakes. A steep climb is made just prior to reaching the lakes, but once you arrive at them you are rewarded with a stunning view. There is a waterfall cascading down into one of the lakes (if you go early enough in the year) with Mount Agassiz looming in the background. From the Morat Lakes, a short steep climb alongside the waterfall will take you to Blue Lake. This is a very picturesque lake. However, as I was unable to find any good campsites nearby, I continued on to LaConte Lake and set my tent up in a meadow just below the lake. I remember hearing a group of coyotes howling not far from my tent during the night. From LaConte it is a short, easy walk to Faxon Lake and then another short downhill walk to Shaler Lake. These three lakes are above the timber line and so the going is fairly easy between them, even without a trail.
From Shaler it is a fairly steep decline down to Jordan Lake which is the largest of the lakes in the Naturalist Basin and offers the best camping sites. Below Jordan Lake is Evermann Lake. Evermann Lake is located in a large meadow area, that requires a long steep walk downhill to reach, so I chose to just look at it from above. When I first visited Naturalist Basin in July of 2008, I only spent one night quickly passing from lake to lake as I was ultimately heading further down the Highline Trail to other basins. I visited again in September of 2012 on a day hike which was really enjoyable as the temperature was cooler, the mosquitoes were dead and I didn't have a heavy backpack on my back. The only downside was that the waterfall above the Morat Lakes had nearly dried up. But considering I nearly had the entire basin to myself, it was worth the trade-off.
