After five years of waiting for a site, campground was closed for a year and then covid, we snagged a spot at Pine Marten campground by Alpine Lake in Bear Valley.
The first night, Friday night, the campground was very quiet since most campers were coming in on Saturday.
The sites beside us were all taken with older folks that go to sleep early. Yes, that is our campfire! 😂
To get acclimated to the elevation of 7,335 feet, we did an easy five mile hike around the lake on Friday. The water level is low, but surprisingly not as low as other lakes in California. This might be due to the fact that this is an alpine lake.
On the south side of the lake we only saw one other person and on the west side only a 4x4 coming back from Slick Rock on the 4x4 trail.
The north side of the lake has more folks all due to the proximity to Hwy 4 and a paved walking trail. The arrow is pointing at Inspiration Point. A fun hike up to the first vista point with a spectacular view south with sight of Utica Lake, Union Lake, and Dardanelles. We have never made it to the very top and never will due to the very narrow trail at the last portion of the trail that has many areas with loose small rocks. That last section is just way too dangerous for this old gal.
The view from south of the lake looking north gave us a peek of Saturday's hike, that high ridge.
Saturday's two mile hike up Bee Gulch trail to this point was strenuous, beautiful, and very rewarding. The elevation gain was about 1,000 feet. This was an awesome view of the Dardanelles and south towards Yosemite.
Eating lunch before taking the grueling 4x4 trail down to Hwy 4 and back to Alpine Lake. I thought the 4x4 trail was a fire road. It might have been a long time ago, but now it is a very rocky road. Some sections that we descended were so difficult due to the soft dirt and small rocks on a very steep grade. I can't believe we hiked down that way. That hike tired me out!
This old gal is very happy with flat trails like this!
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