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Meeks Bay to Stony Ridge Lake

Backpacking to Stony Ridge Lake

Elevation: 7800 feet, +1201' rise over Meeks Bay trail head elevation

Mileage: 6.62 miles from Meeks Bay trail head,

2.26 miles to Phipps Pass

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Backpacking Desolation Wilderness to Stony Ridge Lake

A well worn shore area campsite along South side of Stony Ridge Lake, and a nice place to kick it.

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Backpacking to Stony Ridge Lake, Desolation Wilderness

Stony Ridge Lake

Backpacking 1.64 miles past Lake Genevieve we come to the North Side of Stony Ridge Lake. The Desolation Trail runs for another.59 mile along the Western shore of Stony Ridge Lake.

While looking at Stony Ridge Lake I couldn't help feeling how strange it is that such a remarkable wilderness could exist so close to one of the heaviest used year-round recreation areas in California, Lake Tahoe.

This contradiction between the demands of massive populations and the protection of wilderness satisfies neither. One or both are going to break.

Backpacking through Desolation Wilderness late in the season on a weekday abates much of the overcrowding Desolation is well-known for. Though you can see the affects of heavy use, consisting of the flattened areas around lakes, and the well-trodden trail, late and early season backpackers avoid experiencing Desolation running at capacity.

Even the system of fees and permit rationing employed during high season cannot mitigate the affects of so many backpackers. Though beautiful, you will not experience any desolation in Desolation during the mid-Summer high season.

For this reason you may be inclined to consider using either the Echo Summit or South Upper Truckee Road trail head to begin your backpacking trip South towards Yosemite and on to Mount Whitney. Both are much less traveled during the high season.

Yet during late Summer at the onset of Fall, the crowds diminish, and Desolation Wilderness gets pretty quite.

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High Sierra

Lake Tahoe Basin Administrative Unit

Hiking Topo Map: Meeks to Genevieve                Hiking Topo Map: Genevieve to Susie Lake

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North: Stony Ridge Lake 2

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Section: Tahoe to Echo Summit

Segment: Stony Ridge Lake