Dale Matson
Click On Photographs To Enlarge
Laurel Lakes From Parking Area
Beginning of Drive Route
Well, we tried a month ago to get up to the upper lakes
above Convict Lake and couldn’t cross the confluence of the Convict
Creek/Genevieve Lake Creek because of high and fast water. http://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2017/09/convict-canyon-day-hike.html
So, we decided on “Plan
B” which in some ways is more risky. We decided to take the old mine road
(4S86) that cuts off Sherwin Creek Road near Mammoth Lakes and goes to Laurel
Lakes, then take the trail that departs that road at 9,910’ at about 4.2 miles
from the beginning of the road. Here is a YouTube video, which gives you some
idea of the drive you will be in for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDV-5-DGMkE
There is a small parking area above the drive
area that could accommodate two vehicles. We did not see any other foolish
people that day but this is a popular jeep road to Laurel Lakes. It is really
not made for big Silverado 4X4 crew cab trucks. The road is terrible and
requires high clearance 4X4s with experienced drivers. It is a white-knuckle
experience and we had the occasion to drive back down in low range, low gear in
a snowstorm. As the saying goes, “The Mountains make their own weather”. The
trail is above the parking area and there is no trail sign. However, the trail,
which is probably seldom used is in excellent shape until just above Genevieve Lake.
There is a junction sign with a trail leading over to Edith Lake. That trail is
shown on the Tom Harrison Map but not on a standard Topo Map.
Annie and I lost the trail after crossing over the outlet to
Genevieve Lake and had to climb higher to find it again. You can see the
difference between our outbound and inbound routes near the lake. Our route
took us almost to Dorothy Lake and we could see it from where we turned around.
We went 11.5 miles round trip measured by my Ambit 2 and 12.4 miles round trip measured
with my Garmin Map 64 GPS. We gained 3,350’ of altitude round trip. We were out
for about 10 hours with most hiking above 10,000’. I was glad we didn’t go all
the way to Dorothy Lake, which would have added another 1.5 hours or so. On our
return, the sunny skies were quickly changing over to clouds and then snow
before we reached the truck.
As you can see from the photographs, the area above Convict
Lake is amazing and colorful with views, which include Bloody Mountain
(12,552’), Laurel Mountain (11,843’) and Mt. Morrison (12,268’).
Probably most folks who drive the Laurel Creek Road only do
it once and I will now include myself among those folks. In the beginning of
the video clip there are a number of parked vehicles. After watching the video
you will understand why it is safer to hike the road. Our return descent of 4.2
miles took over an hour with Annie getting out a few times to guide me around
and between boulders.
Mildred Lake
Convict Lale
Storm Coming In On Return
Laurel Mountain
Lake Genevieve Outlet
Lake Genevieve
Annie Crossing The Outlet
Annie On The Start Of The Trail
"Road"
Mildred Lake
Truck Below Trail
Dorothy Lake
Banner Ritter
There is a YouTube slideshow and video clip here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-X9vRauqBo
We got all the way to Dorothy Lake this year from the same trail.
https://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2018/08/genevieve-and-dorothy-lakes-two-nights.html
We got all the way to Dorothy Lake this year from the same trail.
https://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2018/08/genevieve-and-dorothy-lakes-two-nights.html
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