Showers Lake

Showers Lake is a very popular destination for local backpackers. Lots of folks from the Carson Valley and Reno enjoy this place, as well as Lake Tahoe Locals out for a quick weekend getaway.

We can approach Showers Lake from many trail heads around the compass.

Trails come into Showers Lake from the Southeast out of Carson Pass, from the North from Echo Summit, and from the Northeast out of the Meyers trail head. These trailheads are featured in this trail guide.

We can also approach Showers from the South via Schneiders Cow Camp off of Highway 88 near Caples Lake, or from the West via Sayles Canyon Trailhead on Highway 50, a half-mile East of Camp Sacramento.

This section of trail guide is hiking South to Showers Lake from Echo Summit along the unified Tahoe to Yosemite-Pacific Crest-Tahoe Rim Trails.

We can also reach Showers Lake from the East out of the Big Meadow Trail off of Highway 89, which cuts in to the trail coming up from the Meyers trailhead just below Round Lake.

The map below depicts all the trailheads we can use to access Showers Lake.

30 min hiking Topo Map
Echo Summit to Round Top Lake

MILES AND ELEVATIONS

Add your experiences, comments, Questions:
Schneiders to Showers

The View Northeast of Freel Peak with Jobs Sister off to the Right behind Freel Peak's Northeast shoulder viewed from Showers Lake. Dardanelles Lake sits nestled in the foreground forest.  Dardanelle Lake is accessible from the South Upper Truckee Trailhead in Meyers and from the Big Meadow Trailhead along Highway 89 below the North side of Luther Pass.

Echo Summit to Carson Pass
Meiss Country Backpacking Map

Cross Country & Winter Travel
in the
Meiss Country Roadless Area

You can make a cross country go at Dardanelles Lake from Showers Lake. I'd drop down to the East to the South Upper Truckee, rather than attempt a direct line from Showers Lake to Dardanelles Lake.
I prefer cross country travel during Winter, when the snow covers the dense undergrowth that blocks much of the terrain from Spring on. I would not suggest attempting cross country travel through most of Meiss Country Roadless Area during Summer.

Dense brush fills about every nook and cranny of the terrain after the Spring Thaw explosion of life, making cross country travel through here very difficult during Summer. Once the cold of Fall strips the brush and the Winter snows covers it all up these cross-country trips through and around Christmas Valley are still very difficult cross country navigations through complex terrain.

Meiss Country Snow Backpacking Trips
But, a grand snow-shoeing triangle with Shower Lake being one corner, Meiss Meadow another, and Round Lake being the third corner is totally do-able!
Well, it's do-able for expert backpackers familiar with the terrain in Summertime, who have developed Winter travel and safety skills.

Snow Training Trips
Even better, the easy ways in and out of Meiss Country from Big Meadow to Round Lake and on to Carson Pass via Meiss Meadow make the Meiss Country an excellent "laboratory" within which to develop our Winter skills during the tamer conditions of early Fall or late Spring.

Once we get the fundamentals of Winter Travel and safety under control we can start hiking the "sides" of this Winter triangle, then put all the sides together into an excellent Winter Expedition as our skills grow and evolve.

Out of the South Basin Triangle Trip
If you are a really aggressive Winter Traveler you can extend the Southeastern corner of this hiking triangle out of the Tahoe Basin to Round Top and The Sisters.
The trip would be: Meyers Trailhead to Showers Lake via Round/Dardanelles Lake. From Showers to Round Top Lake. Round Top Lake back into the Tahoe Basin and down to Round Lake. Round Lake out through Meyers.

That's a nifty Winter backpacking trip I've been doing for 20 years. It can take up to a week through thick powder, 4 or 5 nights if snow conditions are well consolidated.

The Meiss Country Roadless Area is stunningly beautiful draped in Snow.

Snow Backpacking in the Sierra Nevada

Nearby Round Lake also offers scrambles up to Meiss Meadow via Meiss Lake. It is rough country. Very Rough. Which makes the Meiss Country Roadless Area is an ideal location to develop your cross country and route finding skills. But you have a few things to do before going cross country.

First, you must become completely familiar with the area, its terrain, the location of the trails, and the route of the drainages by walking all the trails many times with a detailed map in your hand.

Second, you should camp at both Showers Lake, Round Lake, and Dardanelles Lakes, (or the pertinent areas around your potential cross country route) and scout out the terrain around them thoroughly. Start probing the off trail terrain from your campsites. Understand the nature of the terrain and how much energy it will demand from you to cross it. Observe and locate your most likely cross country routes into and out of each of these lakes.

Third, you should carefully plan a cross country route between the two points, considering the necessity of turning around and going back, or bailing out by alternative routes.

Fourth, get into the best shape you possibly can. During cross country travel through deep forests you are most likely going to have to cross deep forest-floor litter, climb over fallen trees, and push through thickets of bushes with a heavy backpack. That, my friends, requires many many sit ups, or you are going to snap like a twig in a hurricane. Strength, endurance, and flexibility are excellent assets in the backcountry.

Fifth, you must inform reliable people (your "second") of your time in through your specific trail head, your planned route on and off trail, your alternative cross country routes and emergency plans, and your planned exit time and location. With this information you must include the contact information for the local Rangers.

Work out how long after your failure to exit the Wilderness at your specified time that your people will inform the Rangers of your tardiness. This is generally one day after my specified exit time. I will also leave a message for the Rangers with my second, informing them as to my level of experience and conditioning, as well as my plans in case of injury, and route alternatives and my possible bail-out route.

Balzaccom's
well-informed note on Cross Country through Meiss Country.
See M & L's
Backpack the Sierra

Snow Conditions at Showers Lake

The video above concerns Showers Lake as the destination from Round Lake. The next day we followed the Tahoe Rim South to the Carson Gap and our way up to Round Top Lake. We roughly followed along the Tahoe to Yosemite Trail route described on the following trail guide pages.

More Videos

Dardanelles Lake. Note the two backpackers on thin point into lake, on the left edge of the Lake.

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Continuing South towards Showers Lake, grand views open up. We see that Showers Lake's location on a flat overlooking Christmas Valley down to Lake Tahoe gives it amazing vistas.

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Majestic Views
open up from
Showers Lake

For the Southbound backpacker Showers Lake represents the end of the closed-in hiking through dense forests and steep drainages we have experienced since hiking out of Echo Lake.

The terrain mellows South of here.

For the Northbound backpacker, Showers Lake will provide your last grand, unimpeded long views until you climb Dicks Pass in Desolation Wilderness.

We do get fantastic views across the Echo Lakes from the Desolation boundary, and at Pyramid Peak hiking by Lake Aloha, but we don't get a real overview until Dicks Pass.

There are many nice views between here and Dicks Pass, but you will spend much more time within the forests and mountains than looking down into, over and across them.

Peter took this fine view of the very edge of the thin meadow apron that sits just below this section of the Tahoe Rim crest line. Showers Lake sits towards the North end of this thin meadow-flat, one of the few places along the Southwestern rim of the Tahoe Basin with unobstructed views of Lake Tahoe, and the whole extent of the Southern Tahoe Basin.

Below Peter caught a view of what makes the approach to the South Lake Tahoe Airport difficult.

The South Lake Tahoe Airport runway is visible in the foreground.

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Backpacking Trail Guide

North

Schneider's Camp junction

Backpacking Trail Guide

South

Showers Junction-Showers Lake