Shealor Lake - Carson Range
El Dorado National Forest - Pioneer, CA
Elevation 7,188
We've been dating for a short time now and have been hiking a few times, but never a full weekend or overnight backpacking. This is the test... Do we camp well together?
Shealor Lake is our destination, it's close enough that if this goes really wrong, we can pack up and head out and call it good... Let's hope it doesn't get to that... I'm hopefully optimistic. So far, so good.
Shealor Lake is located on the North side of Hwy 88 near Silver Lake, about half a mile east of Plasse's turnoff. It was pretty easy to find and there was plenty of parking at the trailhead.
The trail appeared to be well marked and maintained, so we headed on out. No permits are required for this area unless you're using your camp stove, which we are. And campfires are still permitted in designated fire rings, no restrictions from the drought, yet. Yay!
The trail to the lake
Lots of pretty flowers this time of year.
The hike in was rocky and fully exposed, but only a couple of miles long, so it was easy peasy. You go up and over a small ridge, then down to the lake. It's just coming into view here.
The lake was very pretty. There is a waterfall opposite the lake from us. So nice to listen to.
Wonder if we can get up there to see it up close?
The terrain is rolling hills and trees are sparse in many areas. But very pretty.
We found a great place to call home. Sitting log, fire pit, trees for a hammock and a great place for the tent. So far, so good...
Sitting by the lake looking at the waterfall. Not a bad view at all.
After we got camp all set up, we decided to head out and check out the waterfall.
Looked like we should be able to get up there. There were still a couple patches of snow on the ground. Cool to still see snow in June.
Chris is finding out that I like to find hearts and smiley faces made by mother nature. This was a pretty little rock.
Well, what do you know? We made it to the top of the mountain!
Of course we did. Now, how do you get down?
Peak Selfie!
Built a very colorful cairn and really enjoying the view from up here.
Beautiful.
I have a fear of small spaces, so I'm testing myself. Yep, I survived...
Looking down at our camp from up high.
Well, hello there sir.
So, getting up there, no problem. Getting down? Hmmm.
Should we backtrack? Nope. Keep pressing on.
It's very steep and huge boulders. Funny, it didn't look this steep from the other side...
We were now having to get creative to try to find a path down.
Chris was nice enough to offer me his shoulder to stand on so that I could get down this steep area.
What a gentleman.
And whew, we got back down. Fun little excursion and best part was, nobody died. Haha!
The view of the waterfall is much better from over here anyway.
Now it's time for a hammock nap! Who knew two people could both relax in a hammock.
I think we were a little tired from our outing.
And a campfire!
The sunset made the hills turn orange. Very pretty.
We stood arm and arm watching the sun go down. Pretty cool.
The morning sun makes the colors vivid.
This is a very pretty lake. Small, but had some fun things to explore. Great for a quick hike in and a night or two. I think we will come back here again. We also discovered that we camp really well together. Definitely more backpacking and camping in our future!
And he's making me french toast for breakfast! Definitely a keeper!
The hike in was all downhill, so the hike out? Well, it's all uphill.
But it's only a couple of miles, so not too bad.
What a great weekend we had at Shealor Lake!!
Comments
Post a Comment