from the Crabtree ranger cabin, I headed south and a little eastward, and eventualy picked up the non-maintained trail up to lower Crabtree lk. It disappears in some big boulders at the lake's outlet, but climbing over those to the shoreline, you will find it again. I lost it again near the middle lake, but I see I was too far south. I spent a night on that sandy beach.
Coming NOBO (the opposite of what Steve said) that use trail starts at a horse tie up spot near the lake with the beach. One time we stayed on that trail NOBO all the way to Crabtree area, another time somehow lost it and bushwacked a bit and still ended up near the Crabtree Station. That use trail is on some maps.
Again, coming NOBO... Looking for campsites after Crabtree Pass.
(A) There is a very, very sparse single one at the base of Crabtree Pass/high end of the lake.
(B) On the lower end of the lake near the gulch that people go up to to do Sand Hill/Discovery Pinnacle, there are two sites on a promontory about 20 feet vertically above the lake (where I took the picture with Cheetos). Note that there are two routes to get from Whitney to Crabtree
SOBO: From TrailCrest over Discovery Pinnacle, down SandHill to lake, or (2)from Crabtree Ranger Station area up the string of Crabtree lakes.
(C) Again, going NOBO: There are two campsites in between the lake and the next lower lake that has the beach. It does not look like anything is there. Look for some sparse trees, off the trail a few minutes.
Now I forget which way you are going. We went NOBO over New Army Pass, dropped down on ridge to Army Pass, did NOT pick up the trail headed west, but continued on the use trail toward Langley, turned left on use trail and last gulley on left at base of Langley. This lead down to small lake at base of Major General. Stay on the right near the treeline, You will wrap around MG to a small lake and access to Miter Basin. This saves a bit of altitude change.
Steve- in 2014 I posted some maps about this but I cannot find it on SEARCH. If you can find it , that would be great. There might be one error on it. I may have drawn the route on the lake above Sky Blue as one direction, whereas either direction will work.
