Trail Report: Laurel Lake - Mammoth Lakes, Ca

[mJUSTINm]

My girlfriend and I went camping with some friends in Mammoth Lakes, Ca over 4th of July weekend. The trailhead to Laurel Lake was just couple miles from camp, and it's one I've always wanted to check out. It's a 4.5 mile trail that takes you over 10,000 ft to the lake. It's an easy trail, just a bit rocky. There are some narrow side slopes that a full size might have trouble on, but our 2 Jeeps (my LJ and a YJ) and 07 Taco had no troubles. Unfortunately, the trail was still blocked by snow about 1-1.5 miles from the lake. It was still a fun trail though, with some amazing views. All pics taken with my cell phone, and this is posted from my iPod. Sorry for any picture quality or size issues.

Heading up the start of the trail




















End of the line. A couple feet of the trail is exposed, but not enough to safely pass at this point.
!

The view back from where we stopped.


All in all it was a gorgeous trail and the weather was perfect. Hopefully I can get back there this summer and make it to the lake for a little fishing.

[Schmo]

Looks like a cool area to explore . . . thanks for sharing!

[Dezertdog]

Thanks for that.
Looks like one to check out someday.

Scott

[RAT]

Thanks for those pics. Man I love that area. Looks like the snow adds a real nice pucker factor to that part of the trial. Did you hike up past that spot to see how much more snow there is?

[mJUSTINm]

No we didn't go passed that spot. We could see patches of snow along the trail the rest of the way, and that was just at the beginning of the narrow trail on the side slopes.

[nwoods]

Those are awesome cell phone pictures! I was up there this weekend too. Did you catch the fireworks at Crowley Lake? Pretty good!

[mJUSTINm]

We tried to find a place to watch the show from, atop some hill, but we left too late to find a spot. So in short, no we didn't watch the show. We ended up going to my mom's house and getting pizza and beers and ordered a fight on PPV. I'm bummed we missed the fireworks show though!

[JonRubi]

That place is great. I go up there every year. There is some good fishing there to a lot of little goldens up there

[Borregowrangler]

Beautiful area!

Hey, just break out the shovels and clear the snow enough to get by!

[Mike-Motorbike]

]I know I posted these on the other site but I'm board and I thought I'd sharte with these guys too...

Mammoth pics the week before.

On the way up to Laurel Lakes.








Close up of the waterfall.








Here is the snow bank the week before what you can't see is the 1000 foot steep drop on the right.



Looking down the trail from just below the snow...

[Mike-Motorbike]

This was the only hard spot.
Not that bad though.

[tahoe offroader]

August 6, 2010

1 month after mJustinm's pictures we went all the way to the top with no snow on the trail at all. The higher you go as you get towards the lake the trail gets a little rougher(larger rocks, <alot> of sharp shale on the trail that sounds like you are driving on glass).
We saw several non-jeeps up at the top but they all had al least suspension. Not recommended for box stock 4WD's as you could be up there for quite a while if you broke. Beware: it would be real easy to cut down a sidewall up there on the single track so be prepared. It's definitely worth your time to go up there though. It's like the mini Swiss alps ! Have fun,,,

[karstic]

I've had a stock Chevy 4x4 shortbed pick up to Laurel Lake, also a stock Jeep Cherokee. But I agree the scree is pretty sharp. Make sure your spare is in good condition.