We took a day trip last Monday to Conness Lakes. I was expecting to be impressed and I wasn't disappointed. What a great place! Below are links to some panoramas I took plus links to few 3D images.
Before I went I tried to do some research on the route up to the lakes from Saddlebag Lake. I was disappointed in how little information I could find. All the information I could find said it was an off trail or cross country hike with a partial use trail near the top of the waterfall. Different people described different routes they took. Turns out all of that is unnecessarily difficult. Although we did off trail on the way up discovering the use trail near the falls, on the way back we stayed on the use trail and were able to follow it all the way back to Saddlebag Lake. Nowhere did I read that it is a complete trail and rather easy to follow.
In case anyone is thinking about going up to Conness Lakes and has never been there, here's how to do it. We took the water taxi across Saddlebag Lake. At the dock go up and a bit to the right and you'll find a very obvious trail. It connects to the 20 Lakes trail. Take that trail to just past Greenstone Lake and you'll see a very obvious trail that branches left and goes downhill to the lake shore. Take that trail to the west end of the lake. A little before you come to the inlet creek, a trail branches to the right across a little meadow. That's the use trail that goes to Conness Lakes. It pretty much follows the creek all the way. When you go up the rocky area where the waterfall is there are cairns to guide you through the less distinct parts of the trail. At one point the trail jumps across a small branch of the creek and then quickly returns to the other side. There is one short granite slope to walk up with cairns on both ends. Other than that the trail is easy to follow and dumps you into the Conness Lakes basin and goes part way around the lower lake.
We wanted to get up to the ridge between the lower and middle lake for photography which means you have to cross the lower lake outlet creek. I hate creek crossings and didn't like the place my friend crossed at, which was kind of wide with few rocks to step on. I found another spot that I'm calling the triple crossing that was easier. The creek was divided into 3 parts. The first was an easy step across. The second was a wider step across onto a small rock next to larger rock you can get onto. The third crossing had several exposed or barely submerged rocks to step across on. Not bad. Most people would find this trivial.
Turned out it was quite easy to get to the southern Conness Lake above the lower lake and then up to the ridge with a terrific view of the middle lake.
If anyone is interested in reading an analysis of why the Conness lakes are different colors, I found this article when doing my research. Go to page 13.
http://www.geosci.unc.edu/files/documents_PDF/Geology_72H_journal.pdf
Panoramas
http://panoramas.aa6g.org/ConnessLakes/connesslakes.html
Lower Lake 3D
http://panoramas.aa6g.org/Anaglyphs/LowerConnessLake.html
Other Conness Lake
http://panoramas.aa6g.org/Anaglyphs/OtherConnessLake.html
North Peak
http://panoramas.aa6g.org/Anaglyphs/NorthPeak.html
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2012 01:09PM by Calaveras.