Quick overnighter from Coldwater Campground TH eventually to Duck Lake. The Duck Lake Trail passes Arrowhead Lake and Skelton Lake before reaching Barney Lake only 3 miles in. We ended up camping at Barney Lake and did a day hike over the pass to Duck Lake, which was absolutely gorgeous being half frozen still. The pass was mostly snow covered, but doable without any microspikes or poles. Most of the snow in the area seemed to be melting very quickly - slushy in the afternoon and icy in the mornings.
Hiking in on a Friday helped with the crowds, we saw several backpackers camped at Skelton, but we had all of Barney Lake to ourselves.
Skelton Lake
Trail starts to become covered by snow from Skelton Lake at 9921 ft
Lots of wildflowers around Barney Lake
Looking down onto Barney and Red Lakes
The view after climbing up form the south shore of Barney Lake
Alpenglow at sunset
Gorgeous morning reflections over Barney Lake
Climbing the switchbacks with Duck Pass visible in the background
Near the top of the pass
Duck Lake still half frozen
Crystal clear water!
Looking back down over the basin
Mosquitoes were only bad after the sun set. Overall we hiked less than 10 miles, but even at Barney Lake (only 3 miles in) it felt like we were way deeper backcountry for the views and lakes that we saw!
Thanks for the great report and pictures. Hard to believe that the lake still has that much ice on it.
"On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude."
-- Lionel Terray
Wow! We hiked over duck pass last labor day weekend, Duck lake sure is some of the clearest water around! That said, I cannot believe it is still iced! Holy cow, great trip.
Cool TR and pictures, thanks for sharing them! Loved the wildflower photo.
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer
I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member:http://reconn.org
Thanks nightowl for the report and images. A couple of us had planned a 4/5 day trip to Duck Lake this early August but a month ago nixed that idea given the snow pack that your images now confirm. Looks like it may be most aesthetic after mid August. We had passed through that area a couple summers ago but because of fire smoke decided not to waste effort camping there. I've speculated that Duck one of our larger Sierra natural alpine lakes may contain the greatest volume of water because it is relatively deep throughout. As a photographer have also wanted to spend a day camping on the quite aesthetic north side of the pass but well off the trail about the Wood Lakes area amid its colorful rusty geology. The ridge east gets good late sunset light and there are fine views WSW at dusk towards the Ritter Range.
