Backpacking: Blue Lakes Road to the Mokelumne Wilderness Boundary

Blue Lakes Road

	Looking South across the Blue Lakes Road
	at the Pacific Crest Trail

Hiking a mile South of the Blue Lakes Road you encounter the Tamarack trailhead Junction.

.75 of a mile South of the Tamarack Trailhead junction Southbound backpackers will encounter the creek that drains East from Tamarack Lake. Tamarack Lake is an eight-mile up this creek to your right, to the West.

This creek dies during late Summer of dry years.

Tamarack Lake

Elevation: 7808 feet

Mileage

11.49 miles South of Carson Pass

15.61 miles North of Ebbetts Pass

comments and questions?

Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass Forum

From Tamarack Lake to Wet Meadows Reservoir you will see indications of the difference between National Forests and Wilderness Areas.

Motorized vehicles can make it in on a dirt road to Tamarack Lake from Blue Lake Road. The whole stretch of lakes from Tamarack to Wet Meadows Reservoir is carefully cut out of the Mokelumne Wilderness.

At the places vehicles can get access you will find trash, beer cans, and cigarette butts.

At the places where there is more auto access you will also find heavily used trails. This explains all the unmarked trail junctions we are momentarily perplexed by around the Blue Lakes Road.

Check out the Car Camping Forum.

The main Pacific Crest Trail was well defined by strategically placed branches and rocks blocking the local side routes.

comments and questions?

Blue Lakes Road to the Mokelumne Wilderness Boundary

This short 4 mile section of trail between Blue Lakes Road to the Mokelumne Wilderness Boundary South of the Wet Meadows Reservoir trail junction is the wettest part and most shaded section of the trail between Carson Pass and Ebbetts Pass.

As this part of the trail has the most water, and car access is possible from the Blue Lakes, so it contains the most campsites, and is likely you will end up camping near one of these lakes while hiking between Carson Pass and Ebbetts Pass.

The reason this section features water and campsites is that it is marked by a series of fine little lakes set in the gently rolling forested terrain. This section's nice forest cover is welcome protection from the exposed trails both North and South of here.

Thus each time I pass through this section I generally end up camping along one of the lakes in this section of the route between Carson Pass and Ebbetts Pass.

Backpackers who are planning to hitch down Highway 4 to resupply at Lake Alpine may want to camp as close to Ebbetts Pass and Highway 4 as possible, to get an early start for their short hitch down to the Lake Alpine Lodge the next day.

In that case you are going to want keep pushing 11.8 miles further South from the wilderness boundary here to camp at Upper or Lower Kinney Lakes. A brief hike 1.36 mile hike South separates the Kinney Lakes from Ebbetts Pass on Highway 4.

7.5 Topo hiking Map: Blue Lakes to Upper Sunset Lake

30 min Topo hiking Map: Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

Note: Click the Colored Dots on the Maps!

Miles and Elevations

South: Mokelumne Wilderness Boundary to Raymond Lake

Backpacker Forums

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Your Comments and Questions will be posted on the Blue Lakes page in the Forum, or Register to post your own stand-alone pages describing your trips and the trails around here, in the Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass Trail Forum:

Section: Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

Segment: Blue Lakes Road to the Mokelumne Wilderness