We woke up way too early for the time of year and found ourselves playing Yahtzee on Heather’s phone lest we would be hiking out from our camp at Trapper Lake in the dark. After some less than stellar scores we packed up camp and set off on the Sky Lakes Trail back toward the Cold Springs Trailhead.
Low-light at Trapper Lake.
Sunrise from the trail.
Sunlight hitting the tops of trees.
Just before reaching the Heavenly Twin Lakes we came to the Isherwood Trail where we turned right.
The Isherwood Trail passed by the larger of the Heavenly Twin Lakes.
The trail left the lake and climbed gradually through the forest to a rocky bluff above Isherwood Lake.
Heading up to the bluff.
Pelican Butte beyond Isherwood Lake.
Fall foliage above Isherwood Lake.
About half way along Isherwood Lake we detoured to the other side of the trail to visit Lake Liza.
Heading for Lake Liza through a dry bed.
Great reflection
After returning to the Isherwood Trail and passing Isherwood Lake we passed Elizabeth Lake on our left.
Elizabeth Lake was followed by Lake Notasha on the right with another nice reflection.
Lake Notasha
Depending on the angle the water was a beautiful green.
A short distance beyond Lake Notasha we came to the end of the Isherwood Trail at the Sky Lakes Trail.
We turned right for a third of a mile to a junction with the Cold Springs Trail.
We turned left this time following the Cold Springs Trail pointer. This trail climbed a lot more than we’d expected as it passed by Imagination Peak but after nearly two miles we arrived back at the junction with the South Rock Creek Trail which we had taken the day before.
Parts of the latter half of this trail passed through the 2017 fire scar.
Fireweed seeds
Pelican Butte as we descended toward the junction.
We turned right here for the final 0.6 miles to our car.
Leaving the Sky Lakes Wilderness
Dark-eyed junco seeing us off.
An as of yet unidentified flower.
Another unidentified flower.
I do know this one – bleeding heart.
Woodpecker (it was a busy final 0.6 miles).
Back at the shelter and trailhead.
Our hike out came to 6.6 miles with just over 1000′ of elevation gain.
It had been a great Autumn weekend for a backpacking trip and the hikes were great. The only negative to come out of it was Heather’s knee which had been a lingering but manageable issue for most of the year finally decided it had had enough. She has some PT ahead and no hiking so I’ll be on my own for a bit. The good news her knee should be fine and we didn’t have any more featured hikes on our schedule until mid-Spring next year. It also means we might be welcoming some new kitties into our home sooner than we’d expected since she won’t be joining me on the October hikes. Happy Tails! (or Trails!)
Flickr: Sky Lakes Basin Day 2
wanderingyuncks 
2 replies on “Sky Lakes Basin Day 2 – 09/25/2022”
new kitties eh? Sorry to hear about Heather’s knee!
Yep it’s time for some new fur balls 😆. The consensus is the knee s/b fine. On the bright side her joints looked great, she had been worried it might be related to arthritis. No sign of that though.