Trip Report – Canyon Creek Lakes

This report describes a 26 mile out and back trail to Canyon Creek Lakes located in the southern region of the Trinity Alps Wilderness in Northern California. My trail mate and I began our trip on September 26th and returned to the trailhead on September 28th.

Route Plan:

This trip was originally going to be in the Desolation Wilderness but due to the wildfires that were raging throughout California and park closures, we were forced to replan our trip in entirety 3 times before we decided to just say f*** it and head to Trinity. And what a fantastic turn of events this turned out to be. I have done one backpacking trip here previously and felt it could be our best bet. 

My reasoning was Trinity Alps utilizes a self-registration system for backcountry permits. We did not have to go through an organization or agency to obtain our permits. As you can see in the image above, this is a fairly easy to follow out and back trail. The elevation gain from the Canyon Creeks Trailhead where we began our trip to the second cirque lake is 3,000’. 

Day 1:

We woke up and met at 4:15 am to begin our approximately 6-hour journey to the trailhead. This included a stop at the Weaverville Ranger Station to register for our permits as well as a stop to receive a speeding ticket on I-5 heading north. Yay.

We arrived at the trailhead to find the parking lot full and I was initially worried it was going to be absolutely packed at the lakes. We later discovered many of these cars belonged to day hikers or groups that were not completing the entire hike but camping off the trail along the way. We planned for an 8.7-mile trek to the top but we made frequent stops along the way to explore and take photos. This pushed our actual mileage up to 12.5 miles from trailhead to campsite. 

The elevation gain on this out and back is one-way, meaning our trip up was uphill the entire way to the lakes while our trip back would be downhill. I would absolutely consider this trail to be difficult as many alpine environments in California are.

We traversed steep terrain which ranged from dense and overgrown foliage to blinding and exposed granite faces. 

One of our most notable stops was about halfway up the trail. There was a waterfall with a small swimming hole that was screaming at me to jump in. We stopped here and had a snack to refuel and refilled our water. This spot was gorgeous and I made a promise to my trail mate that on our way back, I would go swimming here. 

We arrived at the first lake with little energy left. We saw an open campsite by the lake but the wind was harsh and cold. Every muscle in our bodies wanted us to throw our bags down and call this hostile little beach our home for the night but our childlike curiosity as I’ve come to call it made this difficult. We needed to see the other lake and we NEEDED to know if there were better spots to pitch a tent elsewhere. 

So, we trekked another mile off the trail but guided by our GPS to the second lake where we found a perfect campsite. We threw our tents up, awed at the pristine geography that long-gone glaciers had carved, and had some dinner.

Our night wasn’t over just yet though. Maybe it was the excess of fresh air that my city lungs weren’t used to, or maybe it was the joint but I mistook the silhouette of a deer for a black bear. My heart dropped, I told my buddy there was a bear and pointed in the direction of the beast so his heart might have dropped too. We realized my misidentification pretty quickly and had a good laugh about it. 

Day 2:

So normally, my days would begin around 7:00 or 8:00 am but this day started at 4:15 am for me. Have I mentioned the wind yet? We estimate the wind this night was about 40 mph with occasional gusts hitting 50mph. I woke up with my Big Agnes Fly Creek Platinum completely disassembled, surrounding me as it whipped in the wind. It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened and I rolled over and thought to myself “If I can just sleep like this for another couple of hours, I won’t have to deal with this Sh**”.

This lasted about a minute before I realized I had to get up, get out, and pitch my tent once more. The issue with this otherwise perfect campsite was that we were perched atop a granite face. There was no way to hammer the stakes down into the ground so I had rigged a system by using my stakes and large rocks. We were also very exposed (see image below). I thought I did a pretty good job and honestly, this probably would have sufficed had the wind not picked up so much. So I fixed my tent and slept for another couple of hours.

Now we Explore

This day was dedicated to exploring everything around us. We hiked up to a large rock close to our campsite and watched this sun rise over the northwestern mountain ridge and meditated to the sounds of the birds, wind, and water. 

We returned to camp and headed to the northernmost edge of the lake where we spent some time flying a drone and skipping rocks. Then we headed south along the shore searching for a suitable swimming spot. We found 3 and did return to 1 of them later in the afternoon. 

We didn’t do much exploring of the 1st lake we passed so we trekked back to it and took some photos.

This was about it, we were ready to swim so we headed back to camp, fueled up then returned to one of the swimming spots I mentioned before. We jumped in, climbed out, then repeated this a few times. The water was about 55 degrees so we didn’t stay in long. The sun was coming down so we headed back to camp. 

All said and done, we hiked around roughly 5 miles this day.

Day 3:

Today we headed back. We didn’t make as many stops this time around so we clocked 8.7 miles from the campsite to the trailhead. We made one stop along the way so I could take a quick dip in the swimming hole like I promised myself I would.

Review:

This was one of my favorite backpacking trips I’ve been on. From the absolutely breathtaking geography ranging from exposed granite faces to the lush sub-alpine forests teaming with colorful flora, to the seclusion we had it was a complete success. 

The hike was long enough to be a challenge but not so long that a weekend warrior couldn’t leave work early on a Friday and have the same experience for themselves come the following Monday.