Re: Gaylor/Granite Lakes loop

Heading up to the park in a few weeks and thinking about checking out the Gaylor Lakes/Great Sierra Mine/Granite Lakes ~6 mile loop.

How challenging is the off-trail portion from the mine down to Granite Lakes and back up to Middle Gaylor? Is the terrain wide open & easy to pick out routes, or does it require some advance knowledge of landmarks, routes, etc? Especially thinking about the portion from the mine down to Upper Granite Lake.

I've been to Middle & Upper Gaylor before, and based on that, I'm assuming it's wide open easy terrain to navigate, but wanted to check before we leave the trail. We'll have a topo map, of course.

It's very wide open, easy to navigate terrain. Remember that this is a day-use only area .

Thanks, that's what I figured. Looking forward to exploring the area!

open terrain, mostly easy to find. We did have someone point it out to us, which was helpful, but in general, it's not hard to see granite lakes. They're surrounded by a big semi-circle wall.

Also fun to hike to the other side of the mines from Tioga Rd, towards Bennettville.

Not too "challenging" terrain. My hubby did it last June with a brand new hip