A sketch of our route. We camped at the confluence of Bear and Swift Creeks the first night, two nights at Emerald Lake and the last night at Summit Lake:
It was a pleasant hike up Swift Creek in the evening, beautiful pine forests.
Campsite near Bear/Swift Creeks
The next morning we headed up Bear Creek basin. Lots of scenic little meadows on this trip and wild flowers in bloom
Views opening up towards Bear Creek basin
Several giant trees like this scattered about
Bear Creek basin
We topped out at the pass between Bear Creek and Black basin. Headed down from there to Deer Creek.
Views from the pass:
The Deer Creek trail was hot and dry and not all that interesting. We pushed through, up and over a pass and down to Morris Meadows. This is a pretty popular spot and we saw several groups here.
View up Bear Gulch from Morris Meadows:
The forest quickly changed to a much more varied, lush variety. Several nice campsites along the Stuart Fork, but we continued up to Emerald Lake. The basin that holds Emerald, Sapphire and Mirror lake is incredibly scenic. Waterfalls were cascading down into Emerald lake, and we had the place to ourselves the first night.
We fished the lake for a bit and enjoyed the sunset from just above our campsite.
We played the "see if you can spot a bear on the hills above the lake" game. Eric won when he spotted this guy
It was nearly a full moon. Super bright! In fact the only reason I pitched my shelter that night was to block the moonlight
The next morning we took the scramble route up to Sapphire Lake. The view back down to Emerald
We had intentions of continuing up to Mirror Lake, but the sun was beating down on us as we were bashing through some brush on the north side of the lake. We came to a great swimming spot and decided to just stop there.
Sapphire Lake:
By 'swimming' I meant jumping in and immediately getting out. There was some snow melting into the lake just outside of this shot
Eric taking in the view, up towards Mirror Lake
We headed back down to Emerald Lake, moved our campsite to a more shaded one that we passed on our hike up to Sapphire. We fished and relaxed for the remainder of the day. I caught several small trout, and couldn't resist frying one up on a wood fire. Truly one of the great treats on any backpacking trip
Another great sunset, and another super bright moon rise from Emerald Lake
The next day we packed up and backtracked all the way up Dear Creek. Along the way we scrambled up above Bear Gap and got a nice glimpse of Sawtooth Peak above Morris Meadows:
We passed Deer Creek camp and into a really scenic basin, part of the Four Lakes Loop. We didn't see anybody for the next two days in this area.
We headed up to Deer Lake, which is a pretty steep climb, made even more fun by the hot sun in the heat of the day.
Deer Lake was still holding some snow. We took a break there under one of the only trees around.
We bypassed some snow fields on our way up to the pass between Deer and Summit Lakes
The view down to Summit Lake from the pass
We set up camp at Summit Lake, which is the only lake on the Four Lake loop with good campsites and good tree cover. I then scrambled up to the top of Siligo Peak. On my way were incredible views of Diamond Lake
The views from Siligo were great as well. Lots of the Trinity peaks and valleys could be seen, as well as Shasta and Lassen to the east:
Summit Lake from Siligo
Dropped back down to Summit Lake for a little nap
After a nice nap and some dinner, we took a walk up to a point above Diamond lake for an incredible sunset.
The next day we completed the Four Lakes loop by hiking past Diamond and Luella lakes, then down and straight up to Seven Up Pass. Lots of elevation gain and loss, but well worth it!
Diamond Lake in the morning
Luella Lake and Seven Up Peak and Seven Up Pass in the distance
We dropped down the Granite Lake trail, which had yet another beautiful granite basin:
From there it was a quick hike back down to Swift Creek and our car. We stopped for food at the burger shack next to the KOA in Trinity Center. Very good blackberry milkshakes
