Now that we have a travel trailer, I wouldn't take my RV down to Utica. Plus, during the peak months of summer the lake is always crowded with campers, even midweek.
Our plan for the weekend was to head back to Pine Marten at Alpine Lake since it had been two years since our last visit. I wanted to hike Bee Gulch trail (part of the Tahoe-Yosemite Pack Trail system), but a huge event was happening that weekend in Bear Valley, which we didn't know until we got there. All the camping sites around Alpine lake were taken.
So we headed to our backup, Spicer. We nervously drove the 8 some miles down to Spicer campground hoping that there would be at least one site still vacant since Spicer is out of the way from Hwy 4 and the event. To our surprise half the campground was vacant. We were told if we had come last weekend we wouldn't have found a site. Since schools already started in the Central Valley and most of the schools in the Bay Area were starting Monday, we got lucky with lots of vacant sites to pick from.
We picked site 6, a mainly private wooded site. Our closest neighbors were in sites 4 and 7, which were quiet senior citizens with their huge RVs.
It had been at least 17 years since we camped at Spicer campground. We had forgotten the beauty of this area. The water was never this high in the numerous times we visited the lake while camping in this area. The views looking at the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness and the Dardanelles are truly stunning.
After settling in and having lunch, we headed up to Elephant Rock Lake for a hike to Rock Lake. This area too had changed.
Elephant Rock Lake seemed larger than we remembered it. This could be true since this year the Sierras had lots of snow. We remembered a much small lake with lots of waterlilies covering the entire lake.
We headed off to Rock Lake in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness after taking a peek of Elephant Rock Lake. The trail we took was the one we took 12 years ago with our kids. This trail isn't on a couple of today's internet maps, but the trail is still well used and marked. A marker sit close to the wilderness sign.
About 13 years ago there was a forest fire here that burnt a large area of the forest close to the trail.
It was wonderful to see the new growth, all about 6-7ft in height. Beautifully shaped Christmas trees. We noted three different types of evergreen: spruce, pine, and fir. There are lots of dead trees that have fallen. Those decaying trees will bring nutrients to the new growth as well as to the alpine flowers: Indian Paintbrush and Woolly Sunflower.
We did a lot of climbing over downed trees that had fallen over the trail in the 2 miles that it took to reach Rock Lake. A great butt workout!
Rock Lake also looked a lot larger than what we remember. Again, this winter had a huge snow fall; so, we are most likely seeing the effects from the melting snow. This is only a small portion of the lake, western end. The trail traverses to the eastern end of the lake where the trail meets up with the Tahoe-Yosemite Pack Trail that passes by Alpine Lake. After a peaceful rest at the lake, we headed back to the car and then camp for a relaxing evening and yummy meal of Pad Thai.
Then next morning, we hiked and explored the road down to the dam. Along the way we came upon these large pulleys and then...
...this stone with the information on Martin McDonough, who was responsible for bringing a community together in seeing the importance of the power and purpose of the water in this region.
While hiking down to the shoreline, we noticed a couple of fire rings close to the shore.
We will not wait another seventeen years to venture back to Spicer Family Campground. Yes, it's now on our favorite places to RV camp! Next time, we will hike from Elephant Rock to Duck Lake.
