Fourth of July Lake Snowshoe

I snowshoed from Carson Pass into Fourth of July Lake over the weekend. Beautiful weather, of course, and there's snow most of the way except at the top of the crest just before the big drop into Fourth of July. I managed to find a snow-free patch of dirt around "Campsite 1", so I camped on dirt rather than snow - however, even though the lake is at 8164' it has quite a bit more snow than similarly situated locations along CA-88. The bowl from the lake upwards holds onto snow quite well despite being south-facing.

A couple nice views from the lake:





Iceout is barely beginning there, and isn't happening at Round Top and Winnemucca Lakes yet. On the drive...Caples Lake's iceout is underway, and Silver Lake's iceout is complete.

Winnemucca Lake:



Round Top Lake:



Just around the corner from "Campsite One" you get a nice view of the upper Mokelumne River Valley:



For those who haven't been...the Carson Pass Management Area is 'designated site camping only'...except when there's a foot or more of snow. Which there was, except for the bare ground I located by campsite one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2013 08:38PM by ttilley.

Lovely photos, thanks for posting.
Snow conditions look a lot like what I saw at May Lake last weekend. Thar is snow in them thar hills.

Beautiful photos. The seaon is upon us! Thanks for posting the report

Excellent~!

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