TR: Stuart Fork Trinity Alps July 3-6

[kpeter]

Reasons for the trip:

I had been to the Trinity Alps just once before--30 years ago as a young man hiking with my father. When all my usual Sierra destinations seemed unreachable or undesirable because of the high snow, I investigated the Trinity Alps. The Alps are much lower elevation than the Sierra, but because they are in Northern California and more coastal, they get a lot more snow. While there were still many parts of the Alps that were difficult or impossible to reach, the "crown jewels" of the region--Emerald, Sapphire, and Mirror Lakes are less than 7000 feet and were reputed to be accessible. I decided to give the region another try.

Preliminaries:

The Trinity Alps do not use quotas (though maybe they should), and so picking up a permit is as simple as showing up at one of the Forest Service offices and filling out a ticket at their self-service kiosk. (After some of the poor campsite hygiene I saw from others, I think they should insist people come in and get some wilderness instruction when picking up their permits. I get so tired of hearing the spiel, but oh my goodness--some people need to hear it!) The Stuart Fork trailhead is the most popular in the Alps, and is easy enough to get to via Weaverville (where the ranger station is conveniently located.) You drive from Weaverville north on highway 3 until you cross an arm of Trinity Lake, then immediately turn left, driving through the Trinity Alps Resort and continue a couple of miles on passenger-car passable dirt road to the trailhead and the Bridge Camp campground. This is where the trailhead is. There is probably room for 50 cars, and 49 slots were taken when I arrived on July 3. Be careful to park in the upper lot, the lower lot is reserved for stock trailers (though poorly marked.) I got a warning ticket.

Day 1

Because they are at a lower elevation, the Alps can be much warmer and more humid than the Sierra, and throughout the trip I tried to hike very early in the day. I left the trailhead at 6:30 am. The trail up the Stuart Fork is in many places quite lovely. The first mile or so is on road through private land, and then the trail follows the river upstream. It is a woodsy, packed earth trail where it easy to hit stride, and Sierra aficionados will soon notice the lush vegetation and the fact that the understory often obscures views. The trail passes numerous side streams which were all easy to walk across, save Deep Creek and Deer Creek which have sturdy bridges.

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My only complaint is the trail engineering--the trail goes high over cliffs and then back to the river to camp spots, then climbs again, and dips down to cross side streams, and repeats this up-again down-again gradient. It seemed that for the first 6 miles to the Deer Creek bridge the trail went up and down in about equal measures.

At Oak Flat there is a turnoff to Alpine Lake that would have required wading the Stuart Fork. At this time of year I would not consider it. I do not know if others have made that cross. Just before Morris Meadows is the turnoff to Deer Creek--although you cross the bridge some time before you come to the turnoff. I did not explore the Deer Creek drainage, but was told the upper stretches were still filled with snow.

At the eight mile mark the trail come to Morris Meadows. The through trail goes right and sticks to the drier east side of the meadows. If you take the fork left it curves around to a complex of highly used and organized campsites much nearer the Stuart Fork, back amidst the trees. It seemed as if there were enough packed earth sites for a Boy Scout Jamboree, but if you thoroughly explore you can find some with more privacy. I did not stay here the first day but continued on.

Unlike the Sierra, it is not easy to go off trail and find campsites on your own. The areas around streams tend to be brushy, and being in river valleys makes the canyon walls steep or without a good water source. So established sites are the way to go. Beyond Morris Meadows there were a number of lovely campsites near the Stuart Fork, with some impressive big trees. I wanted to get further in for my basecamp and so I continued on, and began to gain elevation more steadily. At Portuguese Camp I found a junky camp, then I passed the Caribou Pass turnoff, and half a mile further along found a lovely camp next to the stream. It was probably a 10.5 mile hike and it took me 8 hours, with many rests.

I was lucky to be coming in on July 3, since many people chose to leave to head home for the fourth. I passed somewhere in excess of 50 people in various sized groups leaving--all of them friendly and mostly good sources of information. For example: no mosquitoes, no bad bears, too many people, difficulties in finding campsites, snow hanging in above 7000 feet on north slopes.

A long day, but a very scenic river trail with a surprisingly gorgeous camp at the end of the day. Glorious.

Day 2

This was the day I day-hiked up to Emerald Lake, Sapphire Lake, and then aborted without continuing to Mirror Lake. I also learned quite a bit about the history of the Stuart Fork and the many reminders of its role in a placer mining operation in the 1890s.

The trail to Emerald lake is good, although not quite as manicured as the lower reaches of the Stuart Fork trail. All along there were scattered deadfall, but now brush sometimes also became an issue. Flowers by the trail continuously delighted, and Emerald lake turned out to be a gem. This chain of three lakes is every bit Sierra worthy, with the chain appearing just as the geology changed to granite. In the 1890s Emerald lake was damned with cut granite blocks to divert water to a siphon tube 26 miles long--but fortunately no placer mining was done in the vicinity of the lake. There still are some chunks of old equipment, cables, etc. left to rust for 120 years. The dam has long since been breached and the lake returned to normal, although the old dam is a striking curiosity. There are plenty of somewhat exposed campsites on Emerald's headwall, some of which have spectacular views down the Stuart Fork and then 180 degrees across the lake and up to the waterfall festooned cirque.

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The trail from Emerald to Sapphire is easy to follow, although it has received a lot less maintenance and is rougher. Sapphire Lake is twice as big as Emerald and spectacularly beautiful.

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As I hiked up from Emerald to Sapphire, there were a dozen waterfalls of impressive height and size bringing snowmelt down from the "permanent snow field" above. That snow field used to be called the lowest elevation permanent snow field in California at 7500 feet, and usually hangs in for 12 months on the north slope.

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Along the way I had talked to several groups that had continued on to Mirror Lake. But to get there you have to get around Sapphire, and to do that you need to cross a cliff that descends directly into the water on the NE corner of the lake. Someone blasted a trail through the cliff, but the water level was so high in the lake this year that the trail was under water for 30 feet or so. Some climbed to a ledge above the trail--that was beyond my ability, and that morning I did not put my wading shoes into the daypack. So I turned back, sad to miss Mirror Lake but happy to have a whole day to explore Sapphire and Emerald and recuperate from my strenuous hike in. I nabbed some evening photographs, explored the old mining equipment, and retired after a good day.

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Day 3

This day I got up and hiked at 5:30 am, determined to make it to the top of Sawtooth/Caribou Pass before the sun hit this notorious south facing trail. It is a 2500 elevation gain, with more than 90 switchbacks, on a completely exposed shadeless hillside. The trail was extremely brushy, particularly at the bottom, where scrub oak sometimes complete over topped the trail and made it impossible to see my feet as I walked, but this gradually cleared out to manzanita and willow. The canyon wall this trail climbs is very steep--certainly more than 45 degrees in numerous locations. You would not free fall if you missed a step, but you might well not come to a stop for a few hundred feet--unless the brush somehow arrested (and lacerated) you. My advice--do this very early in the day, bring plenty of water, and don't race whether going up or going down.

Despite the difficulty of the trail, the views become more and more impressive as you ascend. Looking south you gradually get a full view of the Stuart Fork drainage and can see the emerald patch below that is Morris Meadows.

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Looking west you look down first on Emerald, and then on both Emerald and Sapphire, glistening underneath the permanent snow fields on the North slope behind them.

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When finally reaching the top I had to explore the pass a bit to get a clear view down to Caribou Lake. Caribou looks quite interesting, but was surrounded by snow and was about 40 per cent frozen still.

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A few people had scrambled over a lot of snow to get up to the pass from Caribou, but toward the top it looked to me as if there was about a 20 foot stretch of 45 degree angle snow that I would want to have some equipment for. As I looked at the irregularly shaped lake and the other lakes below it, I thought that this basin deserved a trip in the future, probably with an approach from the north--less strenuous than the Sawtooth ridge pass I has just ascended from the south.

I returned (carefully) to my lovely stream side base camp, rested and ate for the afternoon, then moved my camp four miles downstream to Morris Meadows, hoping to catch the evening light on the emerald spot and see some of the deer that were reputed to swarm it. I found a camp tucked a bit out of the way, nevertheless struck up acquaintances with a number of neighbors, nearly stepped on a small rattlesnake that ignored me, and got my light show and deer show as hoped for.

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Day 4

From Morris Meadow, I packed up and hiked out. I was unpleasantly reminded of how much up-and-down the trail does during the last few miles along the stream. But with a lighter pack, a gorgeous and cool morning, and a refreshed soul, it was a minor annoyance.

[kpeter]

Flowers and Creatures encountered on the trip....

The flowers were quite nice, and for the first time in my memory they were not accompanied by mosquitoes!

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This young buck investigated camp.

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And this creature glinted by the trail on the way out.

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[rlown]

amazing awe with the pictures posted..

Coming..

[Wandering Daisy]

We went up Stuart Fork late Fall one year, and the fall colors were fantastic. But I think I like your early season timing even better, especially those lovely wildflowers. We did not go up the ridge to look into Caribou Lake- after seeing your photos, I wished we had! We did have good luck fishing in Sapphire Lake. It was not crowded when we went (end of Oct.) but I had to deal with a few crazy hunters who insisted on shooting across the lake (just to hear their guns go off) towards where my husband was fishing.

[Wandering Daisy]

Oops- the fishing was Emerald Lake, not Sapphire.

[rlown]

Very much worth the wait.. thanks for posting!!!

[kpeter]

I've done a little research on the mining operation up there and have discovered a bit. Apparently, water was diverted from Sapphire and Emerald through a series of ditches and siphon tubes and carried 29 miles to the La Grange placer mine, where it was used to wash away a large part of the mountain. Anyone from the area probably has been to the historic mine site and museums in the area--I have not. The mine was in operation until 1918. The trail up the Stuart Fork parallels one of the old ditches for a ways.

I'm hoping a local Weaverville resident or a history buff can fill in some questions--asked by many visitors to these lakes, I am sure.

1) When was the water diversion stopped and the granite dam breached? There are good sized trees growing around Emerald that would have been flooded. How long have they had to grow?

2) I read that Sapphire was dammed too, but there is no obvious dam at its outlet--a pile of rock. Was it dammed differently?

3) What was the purpose of the various pieces of equipment you can still see scattered around the lakes? Just to haul rock to build the dams?

4) Where specifically was the water taken from, and what was its route to the LaGrange mine? And why did they divert water from 29 miles when there must have been closer water? Was it something to do with the elevation?

5) How did they get the equipment up to the lakes? Lots of animal power, I would guess, but since I can't imagine a single mule carrying some of those chunks of metal, did they somehow get wagons to the lakes?

[rlown]

3) Generally for moving or crushing ore. Depended on the mine.. could be straight in or in and down, thus needing a machine to pull the carts out or the men up from the shaft.

4) The idea with hydraulic mining is to drive water from up on high into pipes to increase pressure. This was big in the Sierra foothills as well when they washed away whole mountains to get at the gold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_mining

5) Sleds with animals pulling them. Doesn't have to be on snow. Coffee creek out of big flat has a ton of equipment up on the trail at a mine there. Yellow Rose Mine, Le Roy Mine and Golick Mine.

You can see some evidence of past mines in the 20 lakes basin out of Saddlebag Lake as well.

Weaverville gold pdf: http://www.tcrcd.net/wcf/pdf/Search_for ... rville.pdf

I would seriously love to live in that town. It's really nice.

[giantbrookie]

Very nice! I haven't been up to any of the Klamath Mtn wilderness areas since 1993 and this reminds what I've been missing all these years.

[SirBC]

What a great trip report with some amazing photos, thanks for sharing. Those waterfalls crashing down into Emerald Lake look like something out of Tolkien. I would have have been hard pressed to not just stop there and call it good!