Powell Lake - High Sierra
9/12/2022: The entire hike is beautiful. At 0.6 miles in, you start seeing some very beautiful scenery off to the left. Walk over to the edge and look at all the granite. You go through forests and granite overlooks to reach the lake. Hike to the far end of the lake and up the small granite outcropping to get a great view and have lunch. Although this is supposed to be a heavily trafficked trail, we didn’t see anyone while on the hike to or from the lake. It was incredibly peaceful and quiet. Again, time of year, day of week and early start can make for hiking “busy” trails in relative solitude.
Key: Kid Friendly (maybe) | High Sierra | Ponderosa Pine | Old Growth Forest | Mountain Lakes | White Granite | California | US Forest Service | Emigrant Wilderness | Backpacking
Marg’s Notes: Slept until almost 7:00 although we didn’t sleep well. Disorientating to find the potty @ night! Had muffins for breakfast. Left for our hike ~8:20. Today’s destination was Powell Lake. We started close to yesterday’s hike but higher. Another very nice hike through the forest. As we climbed, we had beautiful views! Lots more pics today. Started at 8:55. Climbed ~900 feet, but again, not too bad. Maybe we still have some altitude tolerance from Colorado! We stopped at an overlook for a snack of trail mix. Powell Lake was very pretty. I stretched out on a big rock while Rod explored. I had a nice 45 minute rest! We didn’t see anyone on the trail, but there were 6 women backpackers at the lake when we got there. About noon, we went to the other end of the lake for lunch. climbed up higher on some rocks. So had a nice view of the lake and another small lake just beyond. On the way out we saw two guys who had been swimming. It was a nice day, but cool and still hazy. We hiked out pretty quickly. 6.1 miles in ~5 hours. Picked up wood for a fire at the parking lot. Back to camp for a nap! Then, writing, then Happy Hour!
Cheddar Broccoli pasta w/ bacon for dinner.
Rod’s Ramblings from the Trail: Starting our hike about 8:55 or so in the morning. Including us there are seven cars at the trailhead. Temperature is 57° and we are at about 8,600 ft. at the trail head. Now we are officially starting at the trailhead at 9:00. We brought our swimsuits and anticipation of maybe warmer weather, but right now it's only about 57 or 58 degrees. There are two parking spots to the trailhead. We parked at the first one but if you just drive another 50 yards beyond that one, you'll see the second one to the right. There were two cars parked there and six other cars parked where we were parked. I suspect you could get 20 to 25 cars parked in the area if you snuggle up tight. At some of the canyon overlooks, there are rocks embedded in the granite and little water pockets about the size of a basketball carved into the granite. Keep taking advantage of the opportunities to look over the edge down into the valley. It is gorgeous down in there. Take your time and look around you. This is definitely a five-star/three-heart trail. The trees look healthier up here probably because they get lots of snow. But they do become pretty sparse at about 9,000 or so feet. After two miles in we have not seen the first person. And this is an easy trail. Unless it gets just really steep somewhere this is not that hard at all. The trail is very well maintained. This, Powell Lake, would be a great place to backpack too. At 2.9 mi you can see the lake if you just step over where you know it should be then you will see it and there's some rocks lining up a little bit to show the way but there's no sign to it so you will need to turn left. And yes, the first people we see are at Powell Lake, a group of six women. They seem to be having a very good time. We got here about 10:30 by the way. Marg has been sleeping for a long time on the rock above the shoreline. We have been here for over an hour and a half, almost 2 hours. We're heading back now and it is 12:18. We measured what we think is our high point of 9,120 ft.
Lunch Spot at Powell Lake
People: The group that was here was a group of six women backpacking and it was their first time ever backpacking. I talked to a couple of them, and they said they thought it would be a lot of fun to start backpacking, so this trip was just to figure out what it was all about. They did one night at Chewing Gum Lake. I heard them talking on the shore and they were very good at giving each other instructions for things like how to put their packs on, how to let it ride on their shoulders, and other tips. I think at least one of them had backpacked before. Whatever, they seemed to be doing a very good job of it. No one was complaining.
Lunch Spot: We had lunch on the Little ridge above the lake on the far end.