On Sunday drove up to the Carson Pass area to take a short stroll to the top of Hawkins Peak. From the maps, it looks like you can take a forest service road to within a few hundred feet of the summit at just over 10,000 feet. I wasn't in much of a mood for a hike and I'd been wanting to try this since last summer.
Unfortunately the road up was blocked by a gate. Although this shortens the distance quite a bit, I still wasn't prepared to hike at that altitude.
We drove down to the lake and parked and then hiked part of the trail to Grover Hot Springs state park.
On previous trips I'd hiked along a well marked trail that followed the exit creek to a riparian meadow. At this point the trail disappears and I've just walked through the meadow. At the far end of the meadow you eventually find the well marked trail again.
I was determined to follow the trail back so that's what I did. As it turns out, the trail stays under the trees and avoids the meadow. It edges between a small ridge and another meadow and then crosses a small granite ridge to the boat ramp of the lake. From the lake, there is no trail marking so one would have no idea this was the actual trail head.
Still, it was a pleasant hike around the lake, through the meadow, off trail up a small ridge, back to the trail and then back to the lake.
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