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STUART FORK TRAILHEAD

TRIP 5 Stuart Fork to Emerald, Sapphire, and Mirror Lakes

Set in glaciated granite at the head of rushing Stuart Fork, Emerald, Sapphire, and Mirror Lakes are the area’s crown jewels.

Trip Type:

Backpack, 4–7 days

Distance & Configuration:

29-mile out-and-back to Sapphire Lake (plus 2.6-mile cross-country round-trip to Mirror Lake and 7.2-mile round-trip to Big Caribou Lake)

Elevation Change:

4,240' (average 292'/mile)

Difficulty:

Moderate

Season:

Mid-June–mid-October

Maps:

USGS Rush Creek Lakes, Siligo Peak, Mount Hilton, Caribou Lake, and Thompson Peak; USFS A Guide to the Trinity Alps Wilderness

Management:

Weaverville Ranger District, 530-623-2121, fs.usda.gov/stnf

Nearest Campground:

Bridge

The long canyon of Stuart Fork and the three lakes at the head are breathtakingly beautiful in spite of a long history of human use and abuse. The hike to the lakes is delightful, although not exactly a wilderness experience. Don’t expect solitude—Stuart Fork is one of the most heavily used trails in the Trinity Alps. However, overcrowding is only a problem if you insist on camping at Emerald or Sapphire Lake. Farther down the valley, Portuguese Camp, Morris Meadow, Oak Flat, and other campsites can accommodate large numbers of campers without feeling crowded.

Dense, mixed forest carpets the sides of the lower valley, and the river flows swiftly through a rocky channel with occasional wide gravel bars studded with cottonwoods and bigleaf maples. Both flowers and wildlife are abundant along the trail throughout the summer, especially in and around Morris Meadow. Since the only significant bear trouble I’ve experienced in the Alps occurred near Sapphire Lake, bear canisters are highly recommended. Fishing is good in Stuart Fork for rainbow trout to 10 inches and fair for eastern brook trout in Emerald and Sapphire Lakes. Mirror Lake has both rainbows and brooks up to 10–12 inches. Autumn hikers will no doubt encounter deer hunters near Morris Meadow.

The amble through cool and shady forest on the way to Morris Meadow is one of the fine aspects of this trip, offering easy travel for the first day or two of hiking. Above the meadow, steeper tread matches the terrain of the canyon, passing through groves of stately red firs. Nearing the head of the canyon, sparse weeping spruces, mountain hemlocks, and whitebark pines cling to the walls of a giant, granite cirque. This subalpine environment also supports thick mats of ceanothus and huckleberry oak, as well as varieties of willow and alder in the wetter areas.

GPS COORDINATES N40° 52.975' W122° 55.540'

DIRECTIONS About 13 miles north of Weaverville, CA 3 turns northwest out of the lower end of Slate Creek Canyon and runs along the shoreline of Trinity Lake past Tan Bark Picnic Area and a USFS information center, before crossing a bridge over the Stuart Fork arm of the lake. At the north end of the bridge, Trinity Alps Road turns west from the highway and soon leads to Trinity Alps Resort. The store, when open, is a good place to pick up last-minute supplies, and the dining room offers quite palatable meals, albeit on a limited schedule.

Beyond a row of cabins alongside the river, the road switches to dirt and gravel and heads up past the resort’s stable and corrals. Drive carefully through the resort and be on the alert for children and animals crossing the road. A quarter mile past the corrals you’ll see the Elk Gulch Trailhead on the right with room for one or two cars. Continue another couple of miles to a locked gate blocking the road. The trailhead parking area is on the left, just beyond Bridge Campground and 3.5 miles from CA 3. Although conveniently located near the trailhead, the campground is cramped and dusty; campgrounds around Trinity Lake offer more aesthetically pleasing alternatives.

Description

The Stuart Fork Valley offers a cross-section of much of the natural history of the Alps. Below Oak Flat the river has cut through jumbled sedimentary and metasedimentary rock strata and glacial till. Several thousand years ago, receding glaciers left extensive terminal moraines above Oak Flat, damming a large lake that eventually filled in and dried out to become present-day Morris Meadow. At the head of the valley, Emerald, Sapphire, and Mirror Lakes shimmer in their solid rock basins much as the glaciers left them.

The first mile of the Stuart Fork Trail follows the continuation of the road across private land, as signs direct you to respect the rights of the property owners by remaining on the road. Veer right at a well-signed fork immediately beyond the gate (the left-hand road leads to a mining camp near the river) and continue to the end of the road at the wilderness boundary, just past a cabin at Cherry Flat.

From the boundary, the well-defined singletrack trail goes about 200 yards to a crossing of Sunday Creek, the first readily accessible water source. Above the creek you climb away from the river into dense forest of primarily Douglas-fir, with occasional incense cedars, ponderosa pines, and sugar pines. Drop down to a flat beside the Stuart Fork, climb moderately up the side of the canyon, down to another flat with excellent campsites, and then up and down again to a crossing of Little Deep Creek, close to its confluence with the river. Pass another excellent campsite, climb over a mound of glacial till (the first on the way up the valley), and come to a steel girder bridge spanning Deep Creek.

After climbing moderately over another small hump above Deep Creek, you descend to yet another flat, where water from a spring runs across the trail and a number of fine campsites lie between the trail and the river. Four miles into the journey, you’re probably now far enough away from the trailhead to ensure good fishing in the river. By August the water may be warm enough for swimming as well. A gentle ascent leads to the lower end of Oak Flat, a wide, gently sloping shelf, 200–300 yards away from the river, and heavily forested with large Douglas-firs, ponderosa pines, and black oaks. About 1 mile from Deep Creek, water from a fine spring spills across the trail, and about 150 yards farther, you reach the junction of Bear Creek and Alpine Lake Trails. The path on the left branches west to drop over a high bank to a forested flat and a large gravel bar beside the river. Excellent campsites, with an adequate supply of firewood, can be found on both the flat and the bar, above and below the ford. This crossing is potentially dangerous during high-water conditions. Fishing for pan-sized rainbows should be excellent.

From the junction, continue ahead on the Stuart Fork Trail, traversing 0.5 mile of dense forest before breaking out into more open terrain well above the river on the east side of the canyon. The trail runs along the embankment of the old La Grange Ditch through here, the first place you’ll notice much evidence of the mining efforts along the Stuart Fork. From this vantage point, you’ll also have your first look at the high Alps at the head of the valley. Some more first-rate campsites lie in a flat between the ditch and the river. The trail soon climbs away from the ditch on the brushy east slope, and then levels off before dropping through some terminal moraines on the way to a crossing of Salt Creek. The fern- and wildflower-lined stream runs swift, clear, and cold. The remnants of an old log cabin are slowly moldering back into the soil, and some poor-to-fair campsites are nearby.

Other Backpacking Options in the Area

If you would prefer not to retrace your steps all the way back to the Stuart Fork Trailhead and you have the luxury of two vehicles, a strenuous 30-mile, point-to-point trip over Sawtooth Ridge and through scenic Caribou Basin to Big Flat is one possibility. Another possibility is to go up Willow Creek and over the very steep divide west of Tri-Forest Peak to Big Flat, a 38-mile adventure. An even longer, 44-mile near-loop takes in the Four Lakes, Siligo Meadows, and Van Matre Meadows; crosses Stonewall Pass; passes through Red Mountain Meadows; and then descends to the Stoney Ridge Trailhead. From there you must walk a mile on a dirt road and then take the Elk Gulch Trail to the trailhead on Trinity Alps Road, just above Trinity Alps Resort and 2 miles below the Stuart Fork Trailhead. Additional shuttle alternatives are to go from Deer Creek to the Long Canyon Trailhead, or over the divide to Granite Lake and then out to the Swift Creek Trailhead.

North of Salt Creek, you climb around a shoulder of rock and ascend a series of switchbacks east up a draw before turning north again over and around more moraines. A half mile from Salt Creek, 7.5 miles from the trailhead, a steel truss bridge leads across the steep-walled, narrow canyon cut through dark sedimentary rock by the waters of Deer Creek. A pack stock bypass trail leads to a ford above a waterfall plunging into the deep pool below the bridge, which also provides access to the creek for acquiring water.

A short steep climb heads up the north bank of Deer Creek and east into the piled-up moraines south of Morris Meadow. A half mile from the bridge, Cold Spring flows copiously across the trail, and a small clearing nearby offers a few excellent campsites. You continue climbing, moderately to moderately steeply, another half mile to the south junction of the Deer Creek Trail heading east toward Four Lakes. A level stroll from there leads through open forest and patches of meadow to the north junction. Just beyond the second junction, you stroll out into the wide, lower end of expansive, lush Morris Meadow, 8.7 miles from the trailhead.

A midsummer evening at Morris Meadow can be truly memorable—an exquisite tableau of deer grazing in waist-high grass, backlit by the setting sun reflected off the multicolored backdrop of Sawtooth Ridge rising 2,000 feet above the forest fringe at the north end of the meadow. The main part of the meadow is roughly a mile long by a quarter mile wide, covering the flat floor of the glacier-carved upper Stuart Fork Valley. On the west side, tilted and glistening slabs of granite sweep up to remnant snowfields under the 8,886-foot summit of Sawtooth Mountain. To the east, Sawtooth Ridge tapers off into a massive forested ridge separating this valley from the Willow Creek and Deer Creek drainages. Stuart Fork, hidden from view by a tangle of willows, alders, and incense cedars, meanders down the west side of the valley. White-flowering yampa dots the green expanse of meadow grass in August, and pale bog orchids hide among the sedges in marshy areas. Earlier in the summer, wide expanses of lupine and Indian paintbrush add splashes of blues and reds.

Many excellent campsites lie hidden in patches of forest interspersed with small meadows at the south end of Morris Meadow. A horse packer’s camp is in a grove of incense cedars jutting into the west side of the meadow, and more campsites can be found in the forest at the north end. Please refrain from camping directly in the meadow—plenty of more environmentally friendly sites should be available along the forest fringe. Freeloading deer, too often successful, have been a problem at Morris Meadow, as are chipmunks and ground squirrels. Make sure you either hang your food effectively or use a bear canister.

To Camp or Not to Camp at the Upper Lakes?

Before continuing up the valley, you should consider whether you want to haul your backpack all the way to Emerald or Sapphire Lake, or use Morris Meadow—or one of the other camps as far up as Portuguese Camp—as a base camp and then day hike to the high lakes. The distance from the south end of Morris Meadow to Emerald Lake is a mere 5 miles, which equates to not much more than a 2-hour hike with day packs. Campsites at Emerald and Sapphire Lakes are fair at best, accommodating only about 20 people without serious overcrowding. Campfires are banned at all of the Stuart Fork lakes and only one small campsite at Emerald Lake has any trees suitable for hanging food, which are an absolute necessity if you don’t have a bear canister.

Camping is possible at Mirror Lake. However, you must be in good shape and possess the requisite off-trail skills to carry a backpack all the way up there. Mirror Lake is seldom crowded but more than two small parties camped there will adversely impact the sense of solitude. You can check at the ranger station in Weaverville to determine if any other groups plan to camp there during your visit.

Follow the trail along the east edge of Morris Meadow to the far end and into the open red fir forest beyond. A 0.25-mile stroll through grass and ferns of the floor of this beautiful mature forest leads past a few good campsites close to the now much smaller Stuart Fork. A moderately steep climb up the east side of a narrow canyon travels through patches of forest, waist-high ferns, and open, brushy slopes. Two miles past Morris Meadow, as the canyon turns west, a marvelous, cold-spring-fed rivulet gushes across the trail. Moist soil on both sides of the spring continues for some distance, as you pass through lush thickets of alders and bigleaf maples. Small openings filled with masses of flowers—larkspur, monkshood, leopard lily, bog orchid, and fireweed—crowd the trail.

Another half mile brings you into an area of small meadows and willow flats, bisected by the diminishing Stuart Fork, where a few good campsites are nestled beneath groves of quaking aspen and fir. Farther on, at the head of a wide spot in the canyon and sheltered in a grove of large red firs, is Portuguese Camp, with ample room for 10–15 campers in several excellent sites. From the camp, continue along the rocky Stuart Fork Trail about 300 yards to a signed junction with the trail to Sawtooth Ridge and Caribou Lakes Basin on the left.

SIDE TRIP TO SAWTOOTH RIDGE

Opinions about the actual number of switchbacks on the 2,200-foot climb up the very steep face of Sawtooth Ridge vary between 89 and 98. Once you’ve decided to undertake the rigorous ascent, you’ll have no trouble following the trail up the ridge, as there is simply no other place to walk through the thick brush and up the steep hillside of metamorphosed rock above. The distance from the junction to Big Caribou Lake is 3.6 miles; if you are carrying a backpack, you should allow a minimum of 4 hours, including some time at the crest to absorb and photograph the incredible views. Carry plenty of water, and an early morning start will help you beat some of the heat on the south-facing ascent, which can be brutally hot by noon in midsummer. A young person died on this hill in 1982, presumably of complications associated with heat exhaustion. Horses are not allowed on this section of trail.

Once you reach the crest of Sawtooth Ridge, Big Caribou Lake and the entire length of trail down to the lake is clearly visible, zigzagging down the steep slope to the south end of Caribou Lake and then following gentler terrain through the open granite basin past Lower Caribou and Snowslide Lakes. Above the far end of the basin, you have the option to follow the longer but easier new trail around the northwest ridge of Caribou Mountain, or the shorter but steeper old trail directly over the ridge. The two trails reconnect at Caribou Meadows and then long-legged switchbacks, followed by a long traverse, and a shorter set of switchbacks lead to the crossing of South Fork Salmon River and the Big Flat Trailhead. More complete directions from Sawtooth Ridge to Big Caribou Lake and the Big Flat Trailhead can be found in reverse in Trip 19.

A half mile above Portuguese Camp, the Stuart Fork Trail passes a few fair campsites and draws near the tiny river for the last time before climbing the north side of the canyon on the way to lovely Emerald Lake. The outlet cascades over ledges below to the south. Halfway along a level stretch of trail, lined with lush foliage and wildflowers, another spring-fed rivulet tumbles down a ledge and across the trail. As you steeply ascend the final quarter mile of trail to the top of a dike, the rock underfoot transitions from metamorphic to granite. The canyon walls on both sides of Emerald Lake are also granite, showing a sharp line of demarcation where the red, metamorphic strata of Sawtooth Ridge begins. You pass a terribly overused campsite in a small grove of firs at the north end of the rock dike, and then dip down almost to the lake before climbing above the north shore on the way toward Sapphire Lake.

Emerald Lake is an outstandingly beautiful 21-acre lake in a bowl gouged out of solid granite by the same glaciers that were born in the giant cirque above and were responsible for carving out the 2,000-foot-deep canyon. The lake is normally warm enough by early August for comfortable swimming, with shelving rocks and a sandy slope at the northeast shore providing a convenient spot for sunbathing and for admiring the stunning scenery. Unfortunately, some ignorant people have camped here over the years; a worse spot to set up camp is hard to imagine—it’s way too close to the water. Fishing is not spectacular here, but some small brook trout usually rise for flies toward evening. The best place to drop a line seems to be near the inlet on the southwest shore. Remember, campfires are not allowed at any of the Stuart Fork lakes.

Emerald Lake Dam

A dam of cut, fitted granite blocks was built in the 1890s to fill the notch worn by the outlet stream at the south end of the natural granite dike along the east shore. The dam raised the level of the lake more than 20 feet to store water for use at the La Grange Mine on Oregon Mountain, 29 miles to the southwest. The dam has been breached now and the lake has returned to its previous level, but the rest of the dam remains, a testament to the prodigal efforts men exert to extract gold from the ground.

The trail to Sapphire Lake contours around the north shore of Emerald Lake, turning southwest through brush and across a talus slope about 100 feet above the surface. As you approach the connecting stream between the two lakes, the trail turns west to snake up over steep granite shelves on the way to the lake.

Sapphire Lake is twice the size of Emerald Lake and, with a reported depth of more than 200 feet, is the deepest lake in the Trinity Alps. The lake is spectacularly beautiful—a jewel, as the name implies. From the dike at the east end of the lake, three sides of a giant granite cirque with remnant snowfields spread before your eyes. Almost directly west, a higher shelf hides Mirror Lake, hanging under the sheer upper ramparts of the canyon. Thick brush and scrub willows cover some of the lower slopes around the lake. Conifers are quite scarce, with only a few stunted weeping spruces, mountain hemlocks, red firs, and whitebark pines surviving in cracks and pockets in the granite. Fishing is no better in Sapphire Lake than in Emerald Lake, and only the hardiest swimmers will find the water warm enough for a brief, refreshing dip. A few very poor campsites have been scraped out in the rocks near the outlet, but firewood is nonexistent and there’s no place to adequately hang a bag of food.

OFF-TRAIL TO MIRROR LAKE

To reach Mirror Lake, you’ll first have to reach the west end of Sapphire Lake by heading 200 yards along a rough trail blasted and picked out of a cliff face on the north side of the lake. Beyond the cliff, the tread disintegrates into several paths that cross a seep and head up through thick brush. At this point you may begin to wonder if a better route climbs over the tumbled granite blocks on the south side of the lake. Either way is difficult, but most scramblers prefer the north side route—some of the blocks on the south side are as big as two-story houses.

On the north side of Sapphire Lake, work your way up to a shelf about 100 feet or more above the surface and push through the brush almost directly west, with traces of a boot-beaten, unmaintained path offering some shaky assurance that you’re on the right route. After about 0.5 mile, the brush thins a tad in a slide area about 300 or 400 yards from the lake, where ducks point north toward a pair of sheer-faced granite knobs. This route is passable, crossing below a waterfall on Mirror Lake’s outlet, and then scrambling around an outcrop and up a tilted ledge and a chimney to the lip of the shelf. However, a safer, although longer, route continues west to the north edge of a giant talus slope above the head of Sapphire Lake and boulder-hops up to the far end of a shelf holding Mirror Lake. Either route is very strenuous, but your first glimpse of exquisite Mirror Lake beyond the ridges of glaciated granite on the shelf will make the climb seem worthwhile.

From the open east edge of the shelf a sensational panorama unfolds, including the entire upper Stuart Fork Canyon. Emerald and Sapphire Lakes shimmer far below, with sheer canyon walls climaxing in Sawtooth Ridge to the north and Sawtooth Mountain to the south. Sunrises seen from this lofty perch can be truly inspirational.

The heavy use that prevails around the two lower lakes is rare at Mirror Lake, but please tread lightly here and leave no remnants of your presence. A few unprotected, fair campsites lie in the hollows of rock southeast of the lake. Although more trees seem able to survive up here than down at Sapphire Lake, firewood is extremely scarce and should not be used. Shallow pockets of the lake may be warm enough for swimming by mid-August afternoons, and 10-inch rainbows cruising the drop-offs near sunset will tempt anglers. Rock climbers should find the walls of the upper cirque challenging.

Mirror Lake certainly lives up to its name; soaring walls of granite on three sides, punctuated by dwarfed weeping spruce and mountain hemlock, and a perpetual snowfield above the west shore are stunningly reflected in the usually placid water. For thousands of years, slowly moving ice ground and gouged at the resistant granite shelf, leaving behind the polished mounds and ridges and the 12- to 15-acre lake with a convoluted shoreline and four small rock islands.