Skyline Drive to North Fork of Lake Canyon

June 29, 2024

This is part two of a 12-day RV camping trip to Skyline Drive. I decided not to let the closed gate on south Skyline Drive stop me from hiking where I wanted to–all the good hiking in the area is down that road. On Saturday morning I parked at the gate and started walking along the road.

South Skyline Drive is still closed

Arapeen trail 1

Walking along Skyline Drive

Jacob’s Ladder

Field of dandelions

Mount Nebo

Candland Mountain above Huntington Reservoir

Mt. Pleasant

CCC terraces in the head of Birch Creek

When I got to the ridge that extends east and divides Spring Creek from the North Fork of Lake Canyon, I left the road and hiked along the top of the ridge.

Route up to the ridge

Old fence

Snow drifts on the east side of the ridge

Nearing the top of the ridge

More snow drifts

View to point 9,983′

Just above the lake that is presumably the namesake of Lake Canyon, I dropped south down off the ridge to the shores of the lake. As I wandered around and took some photos of the old earthen dam that was built to enlarge the natural lake, I wasn’t really paying attention to the weather until I heard some thunder. A small storm was moving along the Miller Flat area to the southeast and I decided to stay down low near the lake for a bit while the storm passed before climbing back up the ridge.

The lake

Stromatolite fossils?

Trail down to the lake

Just some yellow flowers

The lake

Lake outlet cutting through earthen dam

Snow drift below dam

View along the earthen dam

Storm over the valley below

Storm above Miller Flat

Once atop the ridge again I continued east to point 9,983′ where I had good views into the canyons to the north and south. I first heard and then later spotted an enormous herd of elk in the canyon I’d just hiked up from. There were also some hikers who appeared to have hiked up from the bottom, forcing the elk to move up-canyon.

Just another yellow flower

Elkweed

Trail to point 9,983′

Point 9,983′

North Fork of Lake Canyon

View north over Spring Creek

Large herd of elk

Hikers below

Huntington Reservoir

It was nearly noon so I reversed course and hiked back up the ridge, wanting to make the steep part of the climb before it got any hotter. I stopped at a spot near the top of the ridge where I found a nice rock to sit on to eat a quick lunch. Then it was mostly downhill back to the truck except for a few ups and downs along the road. Along the way I was passed by several UTVs and dual-sport bikes, all heading the same direction as me. I suspect they had driven around the gate and were turned back by a snow drift. I returned to the truck after about four hours and 5.3 miles of hiking. Not a big hike by most standards but, sadly, the longest hike I’ve done all year. Now I had to decide where to hike the next day…

My truck about two miles away