Re: Clyde Lake (Desolation Wilderness) Trip

The Desolation Wilderness is heavily used, and fairly small compared to areas further south, but its also quite pretty and I'm warming to its potential for shorter (1-3 night) trips. Last weekend I hiked from Glen Alpine trailhead to Clyde Lake, past Susie, Heather, and Aloha.

There was light rain before I started hiking, and it seemed quite muggy most of Saturday. Clouds built quickly:



but never really amounted to much. The humidity blew away as the afternoon progressed and the weather changed,

Clyde Lake has one really nice campsite...but unfortunately someone else got there by, literally, five minutes. There are other places there that are nice spaces for camping, though they lack views of Clyde Lake and are near what are mosquito ponds, and there are places that are beautifully located (views of the lake, above the skeeter ponds, etc.) but are challenging places to put a tent. So I chose the latter, and woke up to:



Three more pictures...

Rockbound Valley from Mosquito Pass:



Susie Lake, which I think combines the best of the forest/lake/bare-granite scenery on the trip:



Lake Aloha, from Mosquito Pass:



There were a few snow patches on the trip, nothing to worry about. The mosquitoes were vicious above 8000 ft., thankfully it was fairly breezy while I was camping at Clyde.

Nice pictures. Thanks.

How did you get back? I've always loved the descent to Twin Bridges and route 50 along the west side of Horsetail Falls. But this has been a wet year, and it could be tough to get to the west bank of Aloha Lake. The Lake can be quite a maze in high water, and I don't recall any high water bridges at the outlet....

I returned back to Glen Alpine.

I do, however, have a picture of the falls above Twin Bridges, I saw it from 50 and had to climb the ridge inside that S-curve, its roaring (amazing for late August):

Thanks for Sharon.

Totally unrelated... but I know you go lots o place ear and der. Ever been to Grizzly Lake in Trinity Alps?

---

I haven't, making a mental note for future plans though. I'll be up in the Trinities in a few weeks, probably Granite Lake, then I'm wondering if there's a X-country route around the south side of Mumford over to Horseshoe Lake.

Here's some pics from the Trinities...there is a route around the south side of Mumford to Horseshoe Lake, but it would probably have been easier to just follow the "unmaintained trail" from Mumford Pass into Mumford Meadow then hike up.

Trinity Alps Pics

Thanks Tom!

---