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Tree, Poison Flat, Carson Iceberg Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney: Your Backpacking Guide to the High Sierras Yellow Flower
Marsh at the South end of Stony Ridge Lake.
Duck heaven: the expansive marsh on the South side of Stony Ridge Lake

 

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The Tahoe to Yosemite Trail

Backpacking
The South End of Stony Ridge Lake

Meeks Bay Trailhead Access to the North Desolation Wilderness

 

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Trail guide section index

North
Stony Ridge Lake

South
Stony Ridge to Rubicon Lake
Topo map

maps index

miles & elevations Miles & Elevations Index Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit All forest-wilderness Permits all pages

Stony Ridge Lake

The chain of lakes we hiked past coming South up from Lake Genevieve terminates sloppily but beautifully in the boggy area South of the South shore of Stony Ridge Lake.

Meeks Bay to Dicks Pass
15 minute Backpacking Map
Desolation Wilderness
30 minute Backpacking Map

Meeks Bay to Echo Summit
Backpacking Miles and Elevations

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A Marshy Meadow
at the
Head of the Valley

Delightful meadow-quagmire at the South end of Stony Ridge Lake. The low rolling granite formations appear to check and hold water above Stony Ridge Lake creating a nice marsh-meadow.
Meadow-quagmire at the South end of Stony Ridge Lake.

You and I want to stay the hell out of this beautiful muck and mosquito factory, but it's beautiful to look at, and Heaven for migrating Ducks.

Above we are looking North-Northeast, to our Left across the valley just South of Stony Ridge Lake. We are hiking South, to the Right from the perspective above.

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Marshy Meadow

Verdant Greens light up the wet marsh and grassy meadow on the South Side of Stony Ridge Lake running up to the head of this narrow wedge of a valley.

Movement in the water draws my eye, causing a pause in the pace. It's Ducks feeding in the Marsh.

They too notice me, and take my measure. The Ducks decide to measure out a bit more distance between us, and move leisurely but deliberately further away from my position.

This wet mess on the South Side of Stony Ridge Lake precludes it as a location for good campsites. Find camping along the drier North and Northwest sides of the lake.

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Meadow above Stony Ridge Lake, Lake Tahoe, Desolation Wilderness Meadow above Stony Ridge Lake, Desolation Wilderness, Lake Tahoe
Verdant green marshy meadow fills up the head of the valley North of Stony Ridge Lake. Hiking past, I noticed movements in the marshy flow, it's Ducks!
Ducks in marsh-meadow above Stony Ridge Lake, Lake Tahoe, Desolation Wilderness Ducks above Stony Ridge Lake, Desolation Wilderness
Ducks chilling, but moving away from Al. I always stop and watch when the ducks are out. Hell, I try to observe everything.
More Ducks above Stony Ridge Lake, Tahoe to Yosemite Trail The ducks feeding above Stony Ridge Lake

Always plan extra time for each day's backpacking so we can stop and watch the Ducks, and everything else that crosses our path.

Living Things Forum

Desolation Wilderness Ducks entry

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Desolation Wilderness

Meeks Bay to Stony Ridge Lake

Nice hiking on Lake Tahoe's Western Shore.

Stony Ridge Lake

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

Mileage
Southern side of Stony Ridge Lake is
6.62 miles South of Meeks Bay trail head.

2.26 miles South to Phipps Pass
up 1000 feet of elevation.

miles and elevations

Into the Heart of the Desolation Wilderness

Our easy hike out of Meeks Bay terminates at the South Side of Stony Ridge Lake.

The hike up to Phipps Pass is a brief easy-grade intermediate difficulty hike.

Climbing up to Phipps Pass will open up broad vistas of the Southwestern Shore of Lake Tahoe, and dropping down off the pass brings us into the Heart of the Desolation Wilderness.

Middle Velma Lake is another 3.44 miles beyond Phipps Pass, which is a total of 5.7 miles from the South side of Stony Ridge Lake.

This means that we've 2.26 miles of climbing followed by 3.44 miles of descending before we begin the climb up to Dicks Pass.

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Nice Trail Work

Nice use of granite slabs to cover busy creek across the trail.
Nice use of granite slabs to cover  busy creek across the trail.

Granite Flake Bridge

I could see that it took a lot of work to get to the point where these large granite "flakes" would cover the gap over the creeklet below.

Note the extensive build up and backfill of the ramp up to the actual "bridge."

Lake Tahoe Basin Trail Crew and Work Forum

Trail Culture Forum

 

This trail crew feature made me go off trail to get a better look at this pro bit of trail work.
Side view of the build-up and cap-stoned section on the South side of Stony Ridge Lake.

Side view of the build-up and cap-stoned section on the South side of Stony Ridge Lake.

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Video
Climbing from Stony Ridge Lake to Phipps Pass

Up the switch backs above Stony Ridge Lake through dense forest littered with great granite boulders.

Though not a great piece of film making, we can see and get an idea of the nature of the terrain.

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Views of Stony Ridge Lake Climbing South towards Rubicon Lake

Climbing South from Stony Ridge Lake.
Climbing South from Stony Ridge Lake.

We can see how the switchbacks rapidly gain elevation above Stony Ridge Lake. The heavily forested hillside gives good cover from the Sun.

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Stony Ridge Lake

Climbing South from Stony Ridge Lake we can see the marsh at its South end.
Climbing South from Stony Ridge Lake we can see the marsh at its South end.

Climbing South from Stony Ridge Lake towards Rubicon Lake and on to Phipps Pass. Our trail up to here followed along the Western, or left side of the lake from this perspective. We can see the marshy area South of Stony Ridge Lake filling up the head of the valley.

Rubicon Lake is behind us, wedged into a shelf in the mountain ridge we're climbing.

Backpacking NorthStony Ridge Lake 2                                     Backpacking South: Stony Ridge to Rubicon Lake

Stony Ridge Lake

Departing the Southern Side of Stony Ridge Lake Southward presents us with a 2.26 mile hike up 1000 feet to Phipps Pass.

Hard3 or and Intermediate1

The trail is nicely switch backed at a gentle grade. But it presents a stiff climb, even being well graded. The hike between Stony Ridge Lake and Phipps Pass is an intermediate1 level hike.

The fine forest trails we have traveled on so far will now be decorated with the Great Granite Formations first rising out of dense forest, which characterize the lower part of the climb up to Phipps Pass.

The higher up we go the greater the exposed granite features.

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Hiking Topo Map: Meeks to Phipps Pass                 Hiking Topo Map: Genevieve to Phipps Pass

Miles and Elevations

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Backpacking North

Trail Guide

Stony Ridge Lake 2

Up and down is North and South on the trail guide.

Backpacking South

Trail Guide

Stony Ridge to Rubicon Lake

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Add your experiences, comments, or pictures about your Hiking Trips around Stony Ridge Lake:
Section: Tahoe to Echo Summit
Segment: Stony Ridge Lake

North: Stony Ridge Lake 2                                                                      South: Stony Ridge to Rubicon Lake

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Backpacking Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney

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