I would like to add an interesting point about VVR.? I have heard many people say theu don't want to stop there because they don't want to "miss any of the Trail".? However, Vermilion Valley is much more a part of the authentic JMT wilderness experience than many realize.
As we discovered in researching and hiking the original JMT route, the Trail was explored and originally established right through the hearty ov the Vermilion Valley, with several important early trips passing very close to VVR.
In 1894 and 1895, Theodore Solomons passed through the Valley and up Bear Creek to a camp at the base of Seven Gables, before moving up the South San Joaquin to explore Evolution Valley.? In 1908, Joseph N Leconte, on what would later be recognized as the first through-hike on the High Mountain Route that? became the JMT, dropped over Silver Pass and crossed Mono Creek and the Valley a mile or two closer to VVR than the present route,? at the low point of Bear Ridge visible from VVR.? In 1916, Wilbur McClure and the Second Mather Mountain Party followed Leconte's Route and mapped it as the original JMT.? In 1919, following his interpretation of McClure's Route, Francis Farquhar dropped even farther down the Valley traveling NoBo to the confluence of Cold Creek and Mono Creek, which is just below the present dam, and then hiked east passing very close to where VVR is today before continuing up Mono Creek to Silver Pass.? I tws not ntil some time after Farquhar's trip that the commonly used route shifted to its present location over Bear Ridge at the head of the Valley. ?
On the merits of the various routes, I don't know of anyone who thinks the slog over Bear Ridge on the modern route is nearly as interesting or enjoyable as a foray into the Vermilion Valley, and neither apparently, did the early explorers and planners of the JMT.
