Trinity Alps Day 3

A nice slow morning and then off to explore the 4 lakes loop. At a little over 5 miles highlighting 4 alpine lakes how could we go wrong? 

About 2 minutes into the hike w started the long snowy descent to Deer Creek Meadows, awfully pretty though. 

we had thought about creating an extra loop here when looking at maps the night
before, but completely forgot once we were on the trail

Then a short climb to Luella lake. Scarce on camping, but a good snack spot and a great opportunity to wear out the dog...

Even funnier when you can hear the smack as she leaps into the water

Luella Lake

and up we go

Switchbacking above Luella the trail luckily avoided almost all of the snow, once over the crest the views were beyond worth it.

The wind started picking up and after losing the trail in a meadow we passed Diamond lake before heading up more switchbacks towards the last lake of the loop.

Diamond was my favorite

Looking down at Diamond Lake

A little snow over the pass above Diamond Lake had me getting nervous about our upcoming final descent. Passing Summit Lake we took a break and debated how to get down to our camp. It looked no less steep than it had from the bottom and I almost wanted to just turn around. But we could see one trail of footprints leading down so we figured why not.

Summit Lake

The dog thinks you are playing when you kick steps into the snow and between the sheer steepness of the snow bank and the long way down we quickly backtracked and ended up heading down over the rocks (I am a snow wimp). Equally steep but somehow less scary. A few hours later we watched two guys effortlessly slide down the snow with no issues. Oh well, I guess I'll work on my wimpy snow fear on the next trip.

looking down at Deer Lake

looking at the snowbank we avoided

did I mention its spring?

Back at camp I decided I was fully embracing the lazy day and enjoyed a few hours of reading and watching clouds gather. I'm not ready to chuck the long distance days but this was a nice break.