Jackson Meadows Lake

Our first outing of the year was to Jackson Meadows Lake, northwest of Tahoe. We stayed at East Meadows Campground, which wasn't crowded the day after the 4th. We were able to make reservations for two nights, July 5, 6. Since we didn't know how many folks would be out camping due to COVID-19, we decided to make reservations. We had heard some campgrounds are always full because folks aren't able to travel by plane to far destinations this year due to COVID. Normally, we are able to find a first-come-first-serve campsite without worrying about reservations.

There were only two other campers close to us. One left 8:30 AM Monday and the other had a medical emergency that they had to head home Monday night. So our area of the campground was very quiet.

We settled into site 39 which was nice, but too close to the campsites on either side of us. So, it was nice when those folks left. The ideal sites in this campground are sites 4, 30, 34, 42.

We only walked around the campground and looked at the lake on the first day since we were tired from our early start and the five hour drive. Sadly, the majority of the campsites do not have a view of the lake.

After a good night's sleep and a yummy breakfast of veggie hash browns with salsa, we headed up to the PCT.

We headed southbound on the PCT making a gradually climb.

The start of this portion of the trail is under a canopy of mossy evergreen trees, possibly Ponderosa pines. 

After about a mile climb the trail narrows and we passed this pile of rocks. Yes, it is very steep. Thank God those rocks didn't decide to slide down while we were passing this section.

Just when we were starting to doubt being able to have a view of the lake, we emerged from the dense forest. This was short-lived as the trail soon took us further up and into another portion of the forest.

This portion of the trail is part of a forest restoration.

Back in 1992, harvesting was done to encourage new growth and a healthy forest. 

We continued the ascent until we came to a barren area with a glorious view of English Meadows, the valley below. We were now about 3 miles into our hike. We debated on continuing another half mile or heading back.

We pushed on and glad we did for the views just got better, which made it well worth the climb. We passed lava formations from millions of years ago. See the little arch!

I needed to take a rest since I was feeling the effects of the altitude. We started around 6300 feet and most likely climb to about 7000. Plus, we needed to stop often for our dog. She's 15 years old.

Somehow we missed this spectacular view of the lake and Sierra Buttes on the way up. I guess we were too focused on the climb. So, it was a nice reward on the descent back to the campground.

We all took an afternoon snooze after our beautiful 6.9 mile hike.

Husband thought these rocks looked like penguins. I thought of turtles. We enjoyed our stay and hike, but next time we venture in this region we will explore the Lake Basin area.