Near: Pinecrest
Distance: 36 Miles
Elevation: 6,300 to 10,400 feet
Vegetation: Pine forest and high meadows
Last Visit: August 2020
Quartzite peak is a broad peak along the boundary of the Emigrant Wilderness and Yosemite National Park. The views from the peak are outstanding with a great vantage over Emigrant, Bigelow, and Twin Lakes to the west and many dramatic peaks is Yosemite National Park to the south east. You should only attempt this peak if you're comfortable with some off-trail travel. Easy off-trail travel, but still off-trail. There is no official trail to the summit, but an old mining road is shown on some maps. We found that road and followed it some of the way to the summit, but it's very faint and after a while it's just easier to go cross country up the open slope.
Getting to the final peak is quite a haul. We did this trip as a three day backpack with a camp at Lunch Meadow and a long middle day with only day packs. Another day or two would have brought down the intensity quite a bit. Breaking the trip over more days would be easy to do with excellent potential camps at Relief Reservoir (that could get crowded on Friday/Saturday nights), Emigrant Meadow Lake, Grizzly Meadow, or Snow Lake.
Take note that we saw many bow hunters out in the area around Bond Pass, the pass into Yosemite, so keep your pooch close in that area. Also be ready to run into lots of horses and mules. A pack station at the resort hauls people and their gear up to Emigrant Lake. I have never seen so many mules on any Sierra trail as here. We must of seen around 50 pack animals over the course of the weekend.
