Alpine: Smith and Morris Lakes

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4

Green lines for day 3. Click for interactive map

I decided that hiking back what had been given 3 days to hike in and then driving hours back to Eureka would not be wise, so getting to the lakes over the ridge would need to happen as a day hike.

The morning sun comes to Alpine Lake.

It takes a little time, but sun gets to our side of the lake, too.

Daniil was wanting to have evening light and morning light by the lakes for photography, but relented easily to the idea that it would be a long return. It made us a lot lighter and a lot thinner as we trotted back down the trail again, now looking for signs of a sort of trail going up, possibly in a gully.

Back past the pond.

Happy to be climbing away from that smoke sitting in the valley.

I found a fallen cairn in the middle of a slot of rock that clearly runs with water sometimes, although it was dry. How can you tell a fallen cairn from any other scattering of rocks? Not sure, but this was one. The gully didn't go for long, but halfway up it developed a trail along its side. Not far from where that trail starts, there looked to be another going up and out and into the brush. The bottom part is brushy according to Daniil's intel, so we plunged through that, found an open spot under some trees (not looking too good) and then more trail upward swimming through the brush. It doesn't last long, but it sure felt like forever.

Hot rock Penstemon.

Swimming through the brush.

The brush stopped and we were faced with the endless granite. Aim for the saddle sort of over there and a long way up. While there wasn't water in the gully where we started, there was plenty running down the rocks as we chose less slanted sections to walk.

Crossed one random bit of flowing water.

Heading upward toward that saddle to the right and back.

Another stream coming down the rocks.

We had seen the quill leaves and remnants of seeds of "the purple Lewisia" as I tend to call quill-leaf Lewisia. I think it's the most common behind "the peppermint Lewisia" as I tend to know cliff maids. We were really hoping the seasons would continue to retreat as we climbed and we would find those purple blooms. Meanwhile, we found all sorts of other blooms.

A plume of strawberry-leaf saxifrage.

Barry's Penstemon.

Getting higher and any path, just about, is possible.

The stonecrops were a bit more reliably in flower.

Russethair saxifrage.

A look down the valley.

A little more up to go.

Sierra shooting stars.

Pink and white somewhat mixed together turns out to be...

Western moss-heather (white) and pink mountainheath (pink).

Cobwebby paintbrush, quite different from the one found in the meadow far below.

The hoped for Lewisia was indeed blooming high up. We found a little and then a lot and it covered the pass. Well, it could usually be seen from anywhere around the pass. Maybe not exactly covered. There was a lot of it.

A grand spread of quill-leaf Lewisia.

A small and amazing meadow along the way.

Partridgefoot, which generally grows further north.

Mountain jewelflower.

After much longer than it seemed it should take, we arrived at the top. Well, I arrived a few feet higher, but there was a nice shelf to walk along and an easy drop from it to the saddle.

The saddle! Finally!

New view! And the smoke was finally clearing off a bit.

Snow on the north side of the pass with pointy Sawtooth Mountain on display behind.

Sawtooth Ridge the other way.

I wasn't keen on the slanting snow without traction aid, so walked along the edge to a shorter, flatter section to cross, then back to the rocks.

Little ice caves along the edge.

And then we got to finding a way across even more blinding white rocks. The lakes were below us, so we'd have to lose some elevation to get to the water.

There's some small snow patches along the way.

It is a whole lot of rock to get to the lake, which is a dark flat below the pointy Sawtooth Mountain.

Climb directly out of Alpine Lake and you're likely to arrive at the top of this cliff.

I aimed at the triangular rock at the far right of this picture, out in the middle of this slab, as a halfway-ish point. The saddle is just past the pair of trees.

As getting to the lakes started to turn more to descending, I decided my legs had just enough descent in them to get back down to camp and no more. Daniil went on. And to think my first instinct for a great use of 4 days was to get to these lakes to camp on the second day, then bomb down Bear Gulch and head up the trail to Sapphire and Emerald Lakes for day three. Maybe not so much.

Smith Lake most obvious below. Morris Lake is visible on the shelf above and there's a small pond between.

And so we went back without touching the lakes. I was thinking about the mountains I didn't visit on the far east edge of Nevada in the High Shells Wilderness. The feel of the walking was a little different, but it's still rock hopping and cross country taking more energy than it would with a little recent practice of the activity.

A little Lyall's rockcress, apparently not expected here but others have found it in the area too.

One last look at the distant peaks on this north side before going back over.

We made it back to the pass, but that's really only a quarter of the battle. We tended a little further east than the route up as we found our way down.

Back over the top. Instead of smoke, the burn from 2 years ago now shows. The smoke plume from it was quite impressive at the time.

Back above the high meadow and looking over the peaks that edge Canyon Creek.

Looking up to the clouds, coming in as the weather is changing.

This high up, sure, call it a waterfall.

A western carpenter bee on the rush lilies.

We ultimately found our way back down the rocks, keeping off the slabs that were a bit too steep, and onto the thin cuts through the brush to arrive back on trail beside the same fallen cairn.

Finding our way down to the brushy bit.

The lake was already in shadow when we got back. That short hike took quite a lot of time. The previous neighbor had swapped for a couple with a dog, so we didn't get to move to the nicer camp site.

Continue on to the next day ⇒




*photo album*

©2025 Valerie Norton
Written 12 Oct 2025