Preston: Sanger Lake

Six Rivers National Forest

Smith River National Recreation Area

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4

Brown line for day 1. Click for interactive map

Daniil said he wanted to go to the Raspberry Lake area in the Siskiyou Wilderness. Drive up and camp in the afternoon, then 3 days around the place. I've been wanting to hit that area, too, so I had ideas. Looking over the data on climbing Preston Peak, I noticed that it might be outside my comfort zone. Some say "high class 2" and others say "several class 3 sections". Looking at the map, the ridge up from Rattlesnake Meadow looks best, but they say there's a class 4 climb right at the end to get over the lower points to the peak. Taking it in, I said here's what I'd do: to Rattlesnake Meadow the first day, try the peak and fail the last little bit before contouring cross country to Raspberry Lake the second day, then wander back on the third. Oh, and there might be a seasonal gate 5 miles from the trailhead that's still closed for a another week, in which case we can hike into Sanger Lake after the drive in. Otherwise, we might head down to the old trailhead before camping. He wasn't worried about the gate. That would just reduce the chances of having to share a popular area with others.

One seasonal gate at 5.25 miles from the trailhead, recently opened to let someone through but currently quite locked.

Finding that seasonal gate was indeed locked, we had some extra walking to do. Road walking. In the warm afternoon air. We got our gear sorted and got moving. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Somewhere up above the Middle Fork Smith River.

We found much in bloom along the edges of the road. Some we had sort of seen while driving, some is hard to catch at speed.

Irises were quite showy along the road.

Vine maple was already starting to seed.

Pondering the spiral texture of the wood of a dead tree.

After a mile of walking directly away from our destination, we finally came to a big hairpin with an excellent view. The distance had a distinctly burned look to it. I blamed Slater of 2020, but the more western areas were probably the Kelly Fire of 2023. We would see plenty of Slater's handiwork from afar over the days.

Afternoon light makes it harder to see the smoothed and red far hills across the Smith River.

We're just high enough to catch a little ocean view, or at least a little marine layer.

We had to be walking to notice the tiny narrowleaf blue eyed maries.

After a little time at the viewpoint, we started along the road again, now getting closer to the lake.

We parked by some western azaleas, too, but these were in the sun.

The red flowering current seemed particularly dark in its pink.

The western starflower seemed to have no pink at all.

A bigger view all the way down the Middle Fork Smith River as we climb on the road.

The common sagebrush lizard was about the only animal life out and about.

Stonecrops were getting ready to flower, launching me on a side quest to find the more progressed plants.

Bright wavyleaf paintbrush also seemed a little extra red around here.

Middle Fork Smith River starts right up there, past somewhat snowy Broken Rib Mountain.

A hermit warbler sang high atop a tree.

Still walking the road.

Looking up the outflow of Sanger Lake.

It was getting really close to sunset and not looking very much like there would be views of it as we passed the outflow of Sanger Lake. The road makes a great loop and the climb is only a couple hundred feet, so I suggested we try the climb when it was a little more clear. It's a rather hard shortcut and there's a few logs that have been shoved off the side of the road above to increase the difficulty, but it was possible.

Arrived at Sanger Lake just after sunset.

The lake was much as I expected. It clearly gets a little use as a car camping spot and has parking for a few cars for day use. There's a trail around it that looked a little like it might have been built once, but some of it has moved closer to the lake since. I had expected there might be some way to get a view from it, and that didn't really work out.

It was a bit breezy as I cooked my somewhat late meal at the small camp area. There's at least one more small camp around the lake, but it's right on the water. We took the flatter parking area since the road was closed. So that start was a bit more work than planned, but not totally unexpected.

Continue on to the next day ⇒

*photo album*




©2025 Valerie Norton
Written 31 Jul 2025