Backpacking Canyon Creek Lakes, Trinity Alps (4D/3N)
Trip Details:
- Total distance: 23.5 miles
- Total elevation gain: 3,999 feet
- Route Type: Out-and-back
- Wilderness Area: Trinity Alps Wilderness
- Season: Early (late May in a low-snow year)
- Permits: Self-issued at the ranger station, no quotas
Itinerary:
Day 1: Canyon Creek TH to The Sinks (3.5 miles, 955 ft)
Day 2: The Sinks to Lower Canyon Creek Lake (6.3 miles, 1,781 ft)
Day 3: Lower Canyon Creek Lake to Boulder Creek Lake to Canyon Creek (7.6 miles, 991 ft)
Day 4: Canyon Creek to TH (4.5 miles, 95 ft)
May 22-25, 2020
Trinity Alps Wilderness is my default destination for early season backpacking because it typically receives less snow than the Sierra, and many of the trails are at lower elevation. We did this backpacking trip in late May 2020, and made it fairly moderate by spreading it out over 4 days. Jagged snow capped peaks, raging waterfalls, and alpine lakes was the antidote to full-quarantine-meltdown.
Day 1: Drive to Trinity Alps, backpack into The Sinks (3.5 miles, 955 ft)
One of the appealing things about the Trinities is that despite the absence of a permit quota, they are less visited… this is because they are a pain the ass to get to for most concentrated populations of Californians. It took us about 6 hours to get to the trailhead from the bay area. The small parking lot was full when we arrived around 4pm, so we parked behind a long line of cars down the road (yay warm up!).
After making sure all the snacks had made it into our packs, we hiked in 2 hours to The Sinks. There is a turn off the main trail at the ~3 mile mark. Go left, descend about a tenth of a mile, and you find yourself in a strange network of islands dispersed among weaving creek fragments. This was super neat area to camp and it was pretty easy to find a private island away from other campers. Finding a poop spot was challenging.
Day 2: The Sinks to Lower Canyon Creek Lake (6.3 miles, 1,781 ft)
We spent our second day on the trail climbing up along Canyon Creek to Lower Canyon Creek Lake. The creek was moving veryyy quickly, as Shasta discovered when she went in for a dip and slid over some rapids. We passed waterfalls cascading over smooth granite and noted some really nice camp spots along the creek.
Day 3: Lower Canyon Creek Lake to Boulder Creek Lake to Canyon Creek (7.6 miles, 991 ft)
Shasta woke me up at the crack of dawn, as expected. She had a morning dip in the frigid lake, while I struggled getting the stupid bear can open to have some breakfast. Failing to get it open, Shasta and I embarked on a pack-free hike up to Upper Canyon Creek Lake instead. There are some cairns dotting the half mile trek.
After Shasta and I returned to our camp at Lower, Conor opened the bear can, we broke fast, and packed up camp. We descended back down to the junction where upon ascending, you turn right for Canyon Creek Lakes or turn left for Boulder Creek Lake. We stashed our packs just off the Boulder Creek Lake junction. We had originally planned to camp up at Boulder the third night, but instead we opted to put in more miles on this day to have shorter mileage on day 4, before our 6 hour drive home. This turned out to be a brilliant idea, because the hike up to Boulder Creek is very steep, very exposed, very hot, sometimes overgrown, and often a scramble. Not that it would be impossible with a pack on, but the absence of the pack was definitely noticed.
Boulder Creek Lake is indeed spectacular. It sits in a basin surrounded by granite walls on one side, and pours off the cliff face on the opposite site. Shasta went for a swim. I could barely put my feet in for a microsecond, the water was so icey.
We descended back down the steep trail, retrieved our packs, and headed back down the creek. There are certainly some good camping spots along the creek, but there is also a lot of narrow trail that makes you reconsider whether you should have passed that last flatish spot. Finally found a nice creek-side camp with good hammock trees and large fire ring. We celebrated finding a site by eating charcuterie in the hammock, followed by a romantic dinner of pad thai, boxed red wine, and Justin’s peanut butter cups.
Day 4: Canyon Creek to Car (4.97 miles if you had to park way down the road because the lot was full like we did, 95 ft)
Our last day was a straightforward hike down and out of the woods along the creek and back to the car. Shasta said her first backpacking trip was really cool and then she went to sleep for the full 6 hour drive back to the bay.