I spent the weekend at Fourth of July Lake, in the Mokelumne Wilderness south of Carson Pass. I've camped here twice before, but only snow camping. It's much more crowded in summer (for both previous trips I had the lake to myself)...on the other hand, it was nice to be able to swim in the lake, and the area is quite pretty anyway.

Mosquitoes: a few came out in the evening, not enough to bother with DEET...their numbers are clearly on a downward slope.

Logistics: Camping is by "designated site only" when there isn't "one or more feet of snow". First-come-first-serve, so arriving at the Carson Pass Information Station by 8 is a good idea. And on a Saturday morning...there were only 2 sites left at Fourth of July. Officially. Unofficially, there seemed to be a few undesignated sites being used. Still, everyone was reasonable and things seemed to basically work.

Weather: Things were cloudy Saturday morning as a dry front passed through and removed monsoonal moisture, leaving mid-afternoon onward sunny and nice. Sunday started beautiful, though high clouds from the remnants of former Hurricane Dolores could be seen to the south. It was nice most of the hike out, becoming partly cloudy near the end.

This is not a long hike...which meant I had time to go wine tasting on the way back in Lodi.

Water: Frog Lake is WAY down. The flow from the spring between Frog and Winnemucca is decent. Some flow out of WInnemucca's outlet, and in the seasonal freshets between there and Round Top, and from Round Top itself. The rains seem to have helped the seasonal flows with exposed basins.

Pics...there were some nice flowers between Frog and Winnemucca:



Lake Winnemucca:



Round Top Lake:



Caples "Lake", from Fourth of July Peak:



View into Fourth of July Lake:



Morning view of Fourth of July Lake:





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2015 09:04PM by ttilley.

Thanks for the trip report. Those flowers sure look pretty.

I think the recent cold-snap probably helped wipe-out a good many mosquitos. I wouldn't be surprise if there's a rebound of them if the early morning temps stay above freezing for a while.

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Nice! I haven't dropped down into Fourth of July, but many years ago my wife and I did a Memorial Day hike to Round Top Lake, walking on hard snow and snow-cupped areas the whole time. My mistake, as I haven't been able to get her to go true snow-camping ever since!

Good to hear that the skeeters are starting to go away for the season. I guess the bad news is that the wildflowers will soon follow.

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Bearproof
Good to hear that the skeeters are starting to go away for the season.

Sigh... This weekend... I ran into swarming pockets of skeeters... Kept me out of a lake one night and two days went hiking through areas where I got swarmed. Had to spray serious DEET all over me and wear headset. Vicious little buggers. About 12 bites between arms and face before I could get protected. Which may not sound like a lot, but my reactions aren't good.. Sigh. I won't believe the little devils are gone until I get through a few trips without bites!

They do like you, don't they?

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Bearproof
They do like you, don't they?

Sugar, spice, everything nice.

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Old Dude

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mrcondron
Sugar, spice, everything nice.

Awwww... Thanks, OD!!!

Thanks for the report, enjoyed your images. For all the times I've been to Winnemucca have never managed to go further even to Roundtop. Nice looking lake.

David

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http://www.davidsenesac.com

Here's another view of Round Top Lake, with flowers along the shore: