Sunset from Round Top Lake

Lost Keys Lake

Killer Sunset at The Sisters near Carson Pass

Banner: Echo Summit to Round Top Lake 30 minute topo hiking map of the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite Trails.

Dicks, and Fontanillis Lakes from Dicks Pass

Hiking
Echo Summit to Round Top Lake
30 min Map

Backpacking
The Tahoe to Yosemite and Pacific Crest High Sierra across Meiss Country Roadless Area

Aloha Lake under Pyramid Peak from Dicks Pass

30 Min Topo Maps
NORTH & SOUTH

PCT & TYT
Maps
SOUTH

Trail Guide
Information

Miles
and
Elevations

Maps: PCT and TYT
North

Related Information

Topo map index

Echo Summit to Carson Pass

North

South Desolation Wilderness

South

Carson Pass
Area Hiking Map

Detailed Topo Map

Echo Summit
to
Carson
Pass

South 30 min PCT map

Carson Pass
to
Ebbetts Pass

South 30 min TYT map

Echo Summit to
Mount Reba

Trail Guide
INDEX

Trail
Guide
PAGE
Echo Lake

Trail
Guide
PAGE

Echo
Summit

Trail Guide
PAGE

South Upper Truckee

Echo to Carson Pass

mileage and elevations

Meyers
to
Carson
Pass

Miles
and
Elevations

WEATHER

Echo
Summit
AREA
Weather
Map

7.5 min
map
Echo Lake
to
Echo Summit

full MAP
Echo Lake 7.5 Map

30 min PCT map NORTH

Phipps Pass through Echo Summit

all maps

all pages

Lake Tahoe Weather

Carson Pass Weather

Map Information

Echo Summit to Carson Pass PCT: 12 miles Click RED DOTS and BLACK DOTS on Map Echo Summit to Round Top Lake, TYT: 14.51 miles

North 30 minute topo map: South Desolation Wilderness Click RED DOTS and BLACK DOTS on Map SOUTH TYT 30 map: Echo Summit to Mount Reba SOUTH PCT 30 map: Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

Topo hiking map of the Meiss Country Roadless Area and surrounding terrain.

North 30 minute topo map: South Desolation Wilderness 7.5 minute version of above topo map: Echo Summit & South Upper Truckee to Carson Pass South Carson Pass Region topo Hiking Map

SOUTH TYT 30 map: Echo Summit to Mount Reba SOUTH PCT 30 map: Carson Pass to Ebbetts Pass

Location Information

Map Notes: The above compilations of maps from 1976 and 1985 do not depict the actual location of the routes of the trails at the time of this publication in 2013. For instance, the route South of Echo Summit has been significantly changed, as well as the trail through Showers Lake. Over the years these trails have been extensively rerouted. Check the 7.5 maps for the USGS's, and my most up to date depiction of trail routing.

Miles and Elevations-"Route Evolution" Forum Route Comments Comments

These maps fulfill the purpose of putting the main trails into a broader regional context, and outlining the basic location of their routes.

Main Features: The map above depicts the Echo Summit and South Upper Truckee Trailhead options for beginning your Backpacking trip in the Lake Tahoe Basin into one of my favorite places, the Meiss Country Roadless Area.

Though the Meiss Country Roadless Area is small it is ideal for local High Sierra backpacking trips, as well as a great place to begin longer section hikes, and it is a pleasant section to hike through on your way down to Tuolumne Meadows along the Tahoe to Yosemite or Pacific Crest Trail routes, and even longer walks down the length of the High Sierra Crest down to Mount Whitney.

This place is quiet, leading into the deeper quiet deep in the Summit City Creek Canyon. Desolation Wilderness is not quiet. If you want a quiet start during the middle of Summer you have quiet in Meiss Country.

The 30 minute map above gives us a wider view of our basic trailhead and trail options for both the Echo Summit and South Upper Truckee routes to Round Top Lake along the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail route than tighter focus of the 7.5 minute map.

The Roadmap below shows you how to get to these trailhead access point into the Meiss Country Roadless Area. Also see the instructions on each trailhead's guide page.

The Carson Gap marks the extent of the Tahoe Basin Drainage, The Meiss Roadless Area, and the Lake Tahoe Basin Administrative Unit.

Just South past the Carson Gap the Southbound backpacker reaches the first junction where the Pacific Crest and Tahoe to Yosemite trails part. As you can see on the next map, the Tahoe to Yosemite route passes to the West of Round Top and the Sisters, while the Pacific Crest route passes to the East side of this mountaintop.

Administrative Units

The Carson Gap overlooks Highway 88 and the Carson Pass, and marks your entry into the Carson Pass Managment Unit, a special zone of the El Dorado National Forest, and then you pass South into the Mokelumne Wilderness.

Which National Forest you are in when you pass through the Mokelumne Wilderness depends on your route. The Pacific Crest Trail will enter the Mokelumne Wilderness in the Toyibe National Forest, which Administers the Eastern sides of both the Mokelumne and Carson-Iceberg Wilderness.

The Tahoe to Yosemite backpacker will be passing through the Western side of the Mokelumne Wilderness, which is administered by the El Dorado National Forest except for your last few miles West from Camp Irene on the Mokelumne River, which is administered by the Stanislaus National Forest. From Lake Alpine to Sonora Pass the Tahoe to Yosemite backpacker is passing through the Western side of the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, which is administered by the Stanislaus National Forest.

MAP NOTE
Those squares breaking the USGS maps up into grids are the Universal Transverse Mercator / Military Grid Reference System, otherwise commonly known as UTM.

What's important for our general reference purpose is that each side of a square is 1000 meters, or a Kilometer.

From my point of view that is 1093.6 yards or .62 of a mile.

Diagonal: 1414.22 meters, if my trig is correct.

That converts the diagonal distance into 4,639.8 feet or .88 of a mile.

Map Information

Map Symbols

Online and Trail Maps

Online Length Conversion