Piute Pass & Humphreys Basin
North Lake, Bishop Creek · near Bishop · Eastern Sierra
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 9.6 miles
- Elevation gain
- 2,100 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Mid-July–early October
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit for day hikes. Overnight needs an Inyo NF permit (Piute Pass) via recreation.gov quota. North Lake Rd is a narrow rough dirt spur; the tiny lot fills — hikers often park ~1 mi below and walk in.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Loch Leven & Piute Lakes · Broad 11,400-ft tundra pass · Sprawling lake-dotted Humphreys Basin · Mt Humphreys (13,986 ft) backdrop
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- The basin invites aimless wandering — carry a map and note your entry point, because the open terrain past the pass is easy to get turned around in. Acclimatize a night in Bishop first.
The guide
The North Fork's answer to Bishop Pass, and arguably more expansive — the trail threads a granite canyon past Loch Leven and Pi…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Piute Pass & Humphreys Basin — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.232, -118.6275