Desolation Wilderness, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a 2-part trip report of a backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe, CA. I posted Part 1 last week, so if you didn't see it you might want to start there.

Second morning--third day. We are camped in a gorgeous spot on the north shore of Aloha Lake and as usual I'm up for the sunrise. There's no array of pink clouds, but a general haze of smoke in the air gives the light an extra golden color.

The moon, maybe one night past full, setting over the ridge.

Morning camp. I typically heated my water and had breakfast early; K & L like to sleep a little later!  My oatmeal is in the white "cozy" (i.e. insulated bag used to keep food warm while it "cooks" by soaking in hot water).

Fun with shadow patterns on the tent.

The only on-trail part of our day was a return to Mosquito Pass. We left the trail at the pass, climbing along the ridge above Clyde Lake.

Some of the bushes were starting to turn color--hoping that was just the seasons, not water-stress after such a dry year. Probably some of each.

Clyde Lake--and and overview of the previous day's hike up that valley.

 

Looking back at Aloha from high on the ridge (though we had a lot more to go).

From here we could see our route--traversing well above the extremely steep bits. Using my telephoto I could see that it would be mostly easy walking--lots of flat benches and no exposure. So far, our plan was working well. We'd cross the ridge at the flat bit to the left of the lowest point, since the map suggested that would be a better place to go down.

The cliffs drop into Clyde Lake.

 
The traverse worked out as planned, with plenty of mental energy to take photos of cool rocks and plants.

I couldn't capture the sparkly greenness of the outer layer of rock.

Looking back over our route. Mosquito Pass is the low point in the ridge; we just walked up and across to this point.

When we finally reached the saddle and looked over and down to Island Lake, I greatly fear that some cussing ensued. It was a long way down. A long, steep way down a talus slope. The next two hours wouldn't be fun. This was where a lack of scouting (we'd had no way to look at the other side of the ridge) took a toll.
 

Lucky for us, those rocks were stable. I still don't recommend the route, though probably it's okay the other direction. 

Even in a place like that there are flowers, and I stopped to take pictures of them.

It really did take 2 hours to get down, but we were being extremely cautious and therefore did it with no casualties (well, aside from my pants... see below). Island Lake was beautiful, though we struggled a little to find a campsite, to my surprise (it looked to me the sort of place people would want to camp, but in fact they all camped down at Twin Lakes and just walked up to look at it).

Once the tents are up we know we're home, and all is well.

Once again too clear for a colorful sunset, but the light on the mountains was amazing.

Our 3rd and final morning, and I was up and out for the dawn photos again. It was dead calm, with fantastic reflections everywhere. 

No clouds, but enough haze for the peaks to cast shadows on the sky as the sun came over the ridge.

Our last day, and a short on-trail hike out--about 3 miles back to the car (which we knocked off in about 1.5 hours, unlike the previous day's 3-mile hike, which took us about 5 hours). It was nice to make a loop.

Lots of smoke and gunk in California's Central Valley.

Twin Lakes, which does look like a nice place to camp.

With a short hike and a lot of motivation, we were back at the car early enough to drive to Tahoe for lunch. The whole trip was about 20 miles, so no high mileage days, though the off-trail day felt like long miles.

And, as promised, no injuries except to my pants, which suffered a complete disintegration of the fabric around two pre-existing patches. I left them in a dumpster, with some regret. Dang it, I liked those pants!

Remnants of old patches, and the gorilla tape I used to try to stay sort of decent until I could get to the car and a change of clothes!

That's the lot, and thanks for looking at my photos!

 

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 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026 

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