Drove up to Hope Valley to see the aspens and the fire damage around Burnside Lake road from this spring, and of course, to take a hike somewhere. I had decided that either Crater Lake or Scott's Lake would make good hikes from highway 88. Although the climb was steep, the distance was relatively short.
As it turned out, the forest service road to Scott's Lake was open and we drove all the long way up to the lake. It isn't much of a lake now with the water level down almost to dry.
It has pretty views of the peaks around Hope Valley and there were some small groves of aspens framing the lake. I was going to hike back down, but a hiker said there was a well marked trail down to the Big Meadows trailhead that was less than 3 miles. Commando and I headed off and let our shuttle driver take the car to meet us.
It was a beautiful trail, although probably too crowded in the summer for us. Easy to follow and not very steep. It generally follows a creek and watershed down from the peaks. The forest is mixed with pines and aspens. We passed several golden meadows with willow thickets and ate our lunch sitting on an ancient log still impervious to rotting.
We did pass a few mountain bikers (or they passed us) and only 1 other set of hikers so at a more popular time of year I'm not sure Commando would have been so welcome.
Close to the trailhead there's a junction to head to Meiss Lake and that looks like a great hike for another day.
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