Twin Peaks - Granite Chief Wilderness

[cefire]

Spent Sunday hiking up Twin Peaks (just west of Tahoe). Ended up starting from Barker Pass hiking North along the PCT/TRT. In earlier scouting, I had been unable to find the additional (shorter) trail mentioned by SummitPost. The total distance listed from Barker Pass to the peaks is 5 miles (which may be a bit of an overestimate?) but has less than 2k elevation change. All in all this is a really pleasant, well-graded trail all the way up to the junction where the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail split off from each other at a bit over 4 miles from the pass.

Once you hit the junction, leave the PCT and keep hiking the TRT to the northeast. After about 1,000' you'll pass by an obvious drainage running through a large talus field to your left. We started off trail here climbing through a bit of brush to obtain the saddle between the two Twin Peaks. This spot was marked with a small cairn when we were there.

After reaching the obvious saddle between the two peaks, the true summit (right) is just a few minutes class 2 scramble. We found a small summit register with entries dating back to 2006 and note that the register was placed by Pete Yamagata. We spent a bit of time sightseeing and napping on the top before heading back down which took right about 2hrs from summit to car. Right as we were finishing up, you could REALLY see the smoke from the Pollack Pines fire. Any sunlight making it through the pines was turned a beautiful dark red color and lit up the forest like I have never seen before.

First clear views of the peak from the PCT


Short scramble to the top


False Summit Block


Heading down from the shoulder between the two peaks


The fire near Pollack Pines blowing up in the afternoon wind

[Vaca Russ]

Cefire,

Thanks for posting this report. We still need to climb Twin Peaks.

How was the road to the trailhead at Barker Pass?

I saw the fire in PP as well. I was driving the Mormon Emigrant Trail on Sunday afternoon. I was returning from my trip to the Minarets. I was worried they would shut down HWY 50.

Unfortunately the fire is out of control.

Thanks,

-Russ

[cefire]

The road to the TR is in great condition - most of the way from the lakeshore road to the pass is paved (but hilly) and the gravel portion at the end is quite smooth! If you haven't bagged Ellis yet, that trailhead is right down the road and would make for a good combo

[brvoyles]

That's my summit post page...my bad for any wrong/missing info. If you think you can improve on it let me know. I would be happy to let you adopt it. We did it in winter from the sno park so all of the other route info is based off of my best estimates from the map.

Brian

[Vaca Russ]

That's my summit post page...my bad for any wrong/missing info. If you think you can improve on it let me know.
Brian

Brian,

The following needs to be revised,

"BLACKWOOD CANYON ROAD (39.106° N, 120.198° W): Located on the north side of Blackwood Canyon Road, approximately 2.3 miles west of Highway 89. Follow the trail north for 2.3 miles until on top of the ridge connecting Twin Peaks and Stanford Rock. The summit is 0.8 miles west and 800 vertical feet from here."

This trail has long been overgrown and essentially is no longer there.

Thanks,

-Russ