7/16/2017
Hills are alive with wildflowers! This hike will remind you of a picturesque scenery from the film The Sound Of Music....wildflowers in lush alpine meadows with snow melting mountain views. Wildflowers are abundant along the trail and get better as you go and up higher.
Timing is everything. If your timing is right, you can see beautiful wildflowers in many places along the way.....phlox, lupine, mules ears, paintbrush, penstemon and more. About 1.5 miles in, you pass a high meadow at the foot of Red Lake Peak, where patches of Irises are displaying nicely, some blue and some white.
Red Lake Peak (10,068')
Instead of hiking down toward Meiss Lake and Showers Lake, I ventured out to climb Red Lake Peak (10,068') from which John C. Fremont and Charles Preuss made the first recorded sighting of Lake Tahoe during Fremont's expedition in February 1844. There is a lake (Red Lake) just east of Carson Pass for which the peak is named. Along with Lake Tahoe, views from the top are spectacular in all directions....Hope Valley, Round Top Peak, the Sisters, Elephants Back, and Mokelumne Wilderness and beyond to the south; to the north are Freel Peak, Jobs Sisters and Desolation Wilderness peaks as well as Meiss Meadow, Little Round Top and Caples Lake to the west.
Carson Pass
Carson Pass was a historic pass during the California Gold Rush and PCT traverses the pass. Carson Pass also has a California Historical Landmark (#315) where Kit Carson carved his name into a tree. Kit Carson was a guide to lead the 1844 Fremont Expedition.
Timing is everything. If your timing is right, you can see beautiful wildflowers in many places along the way.....phlox, lupine, mules ears, paintbrush, penstemon and more. About 1.5 miles in, you pass a high meadow at the foot of Red Lake Peak, where patches of Irises are displaying nicely, some blue and some white.
Red Lake Peak (10,068')
Instead of hiking down toward Meiss Lake and Showers Lake, I ventured out to climb Red Lake Peak (10,068') from which John C. Fremont and Charles Preuss made the first recorded sighting of Lake Tahoe during Fremont's expedition in February 1844. There is a lake (Red Lake) just east of Carson Pass for which the peak is named. Along with Lake Tahoe, views from the top are spectacular in all directions....Hope Valley, Round Top Peak, the Sisters, Elephants Back, and Mokelumne Wilderness and beyond to the south; to the north are Freel Peak, Jobs Sisters and Desolation Wilderness peaks as well as Meiss Meadow, Little Round Top and Caples Lake to the west.
Carson Pass
Carson Pass was a historic pass during the California Gold Rush and PCT traverses the pass. Carson Pass also has a California Historical Landmark (#315) where Kit Carson carved his name into a tree. Kit Carson was a guide to lead the 1844 Fremont Expedition.
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