3. Emigrant Lake

Length:	9 miles round trip
Hiking time:	5 hours or overnight
High point:	8,600 feet
Total elevation gain:	950 feet
Difficulty:	easy
Season:	mid-July through late October
Water:	available from Caples Lake and Emigrant Lake; purify first
Maps:	USGS 7.5' Caples Lake, USFS Mokelumne Wilderness
Information:	Amador Ranger District, Eldorado National Forest

This trail offers an easy day hike or overnight trip that's suitable for all. You'll travel through small, flower-filled meadows and a mixed pine/fir forest to deep Emigrant Lake, where tall mountain peaks tower high above. Backpackers must contact the Amador Ranger District to obtain a wilderness permit.

The trailhead parking area, signed for Caples Lake, is on the south side of Highway 88 by the Caples Lake Dam, which is 4.9 miles west of Carson Pass.

The signed trail begins near the bathrooms and, after passing a few quaking aspen, contours just above the shore of Caples Lake through a mixed forest of red fir and lodgepole pine. Caples Lake, quite popular for fishing, also offers cool refreshment on hot days.

Open views of Round Top's summit (Hike 2, Winnemucca Lake and Round Top) appear 1 mile from the trailhead. You'll also see the vast expanse of the high ridge north of Highway 88. At 1.2 miles note the sign for Emigrant Road; however, most traces of this historic trail have disappeared.

Continue straight and pass through a small grove of quaking aspen. The trail crosses four seasonal creeks over the next 1.2 miles, each bordered by lush greenery, then angles south along Emigrant Creek and away from Caples Lake.

The path now climbs gently through small meadow patches and past granite boulders and outcrops. Mountain hemlock join the forest as you walk near the willow-lined creek bank and go left at a trail fork at 3.4 miles.

A rock-hop across Emigrant Lake's outlet stream awaits at 4 miles, after which you'll have occasional eastward views through the trees of The Sisters' rocky spires as the climb continues. At 4.3 miles the trail levels and parallels a small meadow near the stream, which is bordered by an abundance of red mountain heather.

Finally, 4.5 miles from the trailhead, you reach the deep, granite-ringed waters of glacier-formed Emigrant Lake. A steep, talus-clad cliff rises from the lake's south shore, and to the southwest lies the broad ridge of 9,565-foot Covered Wagon Peak. Farther west towers 9,805-foot Thimble Peak, a volcanic vent that covered much of this area with lava, volcanic ash, and mudflows four to twenty million years ago.

Emigrant Lake offers several good swimming sites if you come in late summer. Those who stay overnight can find campsites, but they must be at least 300 feet from the lake.