Fourteen of us. Quite a good turnout and quite an adventure. It's the end of July and snow covers most of the last quarter-mile of the trail. But the adventure began with crossing Castle Creek at the start of the hike. No rocks or logs are exposed to use so we had to go barefoot throught he water. It is cold but the real problem is the rocky bottom ( Read more... )

Eighteen of us. Once again two or three people didn't show up but this is a good size. My foot seems to handle things better but it still slows me down. As this was a bit faster group than I've been accustomed to having, they pretty much led me, but that's fine. Mosquitoes were swarming but I seem to have gotten through it without too many bites. ( Read more... )

Ten of us showed up, a few new faces with a few quasi-regulars. As the saying goes, if not for the lakes there would be no reason to do this hike. At least these lakes are holding up against the heat. Not a lot of evaporation, though you can see the high water mark on the rocks a couple of feet higher than the currrent level. Once again, more ( Read more... )

This is probably the dustiest of the hikes I do, but it's still pretty nice. I still find the lower lake more picturesque but some people like the upper lake better. The upper lake attracts motorized vehicles because there's a road to it. The hike from lower lake to upper lake is still one of the great adventures, even though it's short. All twelve ( Read more... )

Twelve of us on this hike. Eight of us went to the upper lake after lunch and the other four eventually left early. A little misunderstanding ensued because the other four were signed off from the hike but I didn't mention it to everone else. I won't go into details here about what happened but I think everything is fine. We had the trail and the ( Read more... )

Last year's pic shows what I like about this hike: the climb from the lower lake to the upper lake. There isn't much trail from the trailhead to the lower lake. What there is, is okay, but it's mostly road. But going to the upper lake is a nice adventure. I found the cutoff easily this time. You do have to know that there is one, and you do have to ( Read more... )

Ten of us for this one, though three decided to return from the lower lake. The rest of us took the annual adventure to the upper lake. I'm getting better at finding the cutoff up to it. There is a recognizable trail in the midst of the brush but it's the radically bent-over tree that really marks the spot. I like these lakes for swimming. The ( Read more... )

Another nice hike to Lola Montez lakes (and a link to another review by Pat Devereaux). Trailhead's been changed. The old parking lot is closed and we come in 10 or 20 yards away. The dry winter shows. The first creek has a couple of inches of water as oppsed to a couple of feet after a really wet winter. The creek before the lake is dry--just a ( Read more... )