Our plan for the middle part of our road trip through California was to do some hiking in slightly less popular areas. Following our hike through the North Fork of Big Pine Creek, we had another hike planned for the next day in a valley a little further north.
After winding our way up a mountain road in the campervan, we passed a large alpine lake before arriving at the trailhead. Just like the hike the previous day, the theme of this hike was also going to be a series of lakes.
Unlike the previous hike, the trail through Little Lakes Valley was much easier without too much elevation gain. The other advantage to this trail was that the lakes were much closer together, so it didn’t take long to reach the first lake.
We continued following the trail along the side of a series of lakes, each one slightly different from the previous lake. Despite the beautiful weather and the easy, well-formed trail after the first lake we really didn’t see many other hikers.
It was honestly hard to keep track of all the lakes along the trail, there are seven in total, although once we arrived at Long Lake, we were able to see how it got its name. The trail followed the shore of the lake for some time before we started the final climb up towards the last lake.
We arrived at Gem Lake just in time for a picnic lunch and again were able to find a spot on the rocks to sit and enjoy the scenery. At 10,915 feet (3,327 metres) above sea level, there were still patches of snow on the north faces of the mountains surrounding the lake.
After relaxing by the lake for a while, we started retracing our steps back down the valley. With the gentle descent, we had plenty of time to look around and enjoy the scenery, focusing more on the surrounding mountains rather than the lakes we were passing.
It didn’t take us too long to reach the trailhead, possibly because of the easy trail, but maybe also the lure of an evening in the town of Mammoth Lakes with real food and other luxuries helped us make good time back to the campervan.