3 Days in Tahoe’s Desolation Wilderness

We had the pleasure of spending Labor Day weekend of 2018 in the Desolation Wilderness. Three days and two nights backpacking up waterfalls and across granite slabs. If you like swimming in high Sierra lakes, soaking in the Milky Way, falling asleep to shooting stars, then this place is for you. Trout fishing in any of the lakes is a great option too. Bonus: it’s dog friendly!
Remember these lakes are created by snowmelt so they’re cold. Bring a float if you want to spend time in the lake and not freeze.

We started at Pyramid Creek Trailhead at Twin Bridges. Hiked up Horsetail Falls to Avalanche Lake and set up camp at Ropi Lake. Saturday day, we hiked to Lake of the Woods and found some secret swimming holes on the way back to camp. Monday we headed down the falls and back to the bay.
Day 1 — Pyramid Creek Trailhead
Saturday morning we head out on the Pyramid Creek Trailhead off Highway 50 near the South Fork of the American River. We parked in the parking lot right of the road. Be sure to get there before 10AM on the weekends, the parking lot fills up on the weekends. The lot costs $5/day payable by cash or check in the classic envelope collection cylinder. You could park on the side of the road for free but why not support the trail and pay your share. The bathrooms and clean spring water were in great shape when we visited.


The hike is smooth until you reach the Desolation Wilderness border. From there the trail disappears and the hike turns into a free for all up the waterfall. The best route will take you wide around the waterfall on the left, as it is not as steep.
Once we reached the top, immediately we encounter Avalanche Lake — a beautiful sight to reward our climbing accomplishment! We continued to Pitt Lake and then back to Ropi Lake. There was one instance where we had to remove our shoes to get to the other side of the lake— there’s a sketchy log you can cross instead, but we opted out of that. We explored to find our perfect camping spot, our home for the next two nights. Once we reached it, we finished our PB&J’s and decided to take a dip in the glacier fed lake. Yes, it is freezing, but once you get enough you can just bake on the granite slabs and get a nice tan.




Day 2 — Day hike to Lake of the Woods
Sunday we woke up and enjoyed not having a schedule. Breakfast included instant coffee with dehydrated eggs on a flour tortilla. We day hiked to Lake of the Woods and explored and looked for wildlife.



Day 3 — Pack up and Head home
Monday we packed it up and headed home. The walk back from camp down the water falls was about three hours. Several other groups were heading down and everyone struggled. It’s a rough climb down the waterfall, be sure to take it slow and don’t rush.
On this trip we had some new gear with us that killed it.

We cooked all our meals on the MSR Wind burner with one small can of gas. That includes coffee and hot meals for breakfast and dinner. Definitely recommend this. We’re looking forward to using it in the winter when simpler alcohol stoves are slower to boil water.
The Desolation Wilderness is an amazing place. Can’t wait to go back soon.
