Mid Sierra Musings: Lake Genevieve From The Laurel Creek Trail Near Mammoth Lakes CA

Dale Matson

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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.