Sierra Trip Reports

Date: Saturday, July 5, 2014

Location: Desolation Wilderness, South Lake Tahoe Basin

Hikers: Sarah & Nick

Photos: Nick & Sarah

Synopsis: Sarah and I decided to go for a nice half-day hike on Saturday, July 5th through the Desolation Wilderness in the South Lake Tahoe Basin. We decided to head down to the Emerald Bay area and hike up the Eagle Falls trailhead to Eagle Lake and then continue on up towards the ridgeline between Janine’s Ridge and Maggies Peaks. Once at that intersection with great view of Azure Lake, we would then continue up towards the saddle between North and South Maggies Peaks and head up to the summit of South Maggies Peak. Lastly, we would head down towards Granite Lake for a quick swim and exit at the Bayview trailhead.

This nice day hike offers a good loop through the very edge of Desolation Wilderness with approximately 6 miles and 2,000 or so feet of elevation gain and loss.

I actually forgot my camera for this hike, so all of the photos are with my iPhone. I was able to clean them up a lot in Lightroom, and also stich together the panoramic shots using Hugin. All in all, I was a bit surprised how well they turned out with an iPhone (after some decently heavy processing).

Arriving at the Eagle Falls trailhead was a bit of a junk show of cars, as expected given the holiday crowds. Most of the folks were simply checking out Emerald Bay or heading to the beach. The trail up to Eagle Lake was moderately busy, but once heading past Eagle Lake up towards the Velma Lakes there were very few hikers. It was pretty awesome that you only needed to hike in about an hour to really have it all to yourself.

On the way up towards Eagle Lake you get a good view of Eagle Lake Buttress. There is a nice moderate trad climbing route up the prominent left face of the Buttress, off in the distance behind Sarah.

Eagle Lake was beautiful as always – with some folks swimming out in it. We stopped really quickly to check it out, and then headed up for the climb towards Velma Lakes, Janine’s Ridge and further into Desolation Wilderness.

We continued up the trail climbing towards Velma Lakes and it intersects with the trail coming down from Maggies Peaks. We then circled back North towards the saddle between North and South Maggies Peaks. In the distance you can see Janine’s Ridge.

I always love going to areas in both the summer and winter to see the differing view of the landscape with some snow on it. I skied Janine’s Ridge with Alex in 2010 after heading back to Dick’s Peak. Here is a shot of it with some snow on it from a similar vantage point.

Sarah with the South West side of Tallac off in the distance.

Once again, a shot from the winter of 2010.

Here is a panorama shot of Tallac and the surrounding wilderness. Click the picture for the full-sized version.

Sarah and I continued up towards the saddle between North and South Maggies Peaks, and then climbed up to the summit of South Maggies Peak. From there, you get awesome views of Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, Cascade Lake and even part of Falling Leaf Lake. Click the picture for the full-sized version.

Sarah had a blast and loved the view up there.

As the Big Lebowski would say, “Nice Marmot.”

After spending some time up on the summit, we headed down towards Granite Lake It was getting pretty hot outside and we both went for a swim in Granite Lake. It was unbelievably refreshing, and the cold water felt awesome!

After a swim and chilling out for a bit, we continued down towards Bayview trailhead. On the way, we stopped and I took this 5 shot panorama of Emerald Bay and the South East side of Jake’s Peak. There were a ton of boats in Emerald Bay.

It was a great little hike in an awesome area.