13th post PCT Wrights Lake to Twin Lakes side trip To the Enchanted Pools

Today I’m again doing my meet up group. We have 22 hikers! We  will split into three separate groups based on desired speed. Today We will be hiking out and back from Wrights Lake to twin Lakes with a side trip to the enchanted pools at the end Before returning to the cars

The trail starts off along the shore of Wrights Lake as we head towards the desolation wilderness boundary 

The trail is fairly wet, lots of muddy spots and we’ve crossed a couple of small streams in just the first half mile

As we left the lake, we began an uphill ascent through fairly barren granite fields. 

Soon the vegetation picked back up again with a lot of greenery and some of these pretty light and purple Spreading Philox flowers 

We’ve been paralleling this beautiful creek for a while. It is stunning and the sound is peaceful.

We’ve reached the desolation wilderness boundary, and are continuing onto twin Lakes 

We passed by a pine tree that has a large very interesting looking tumor. There’s another beautiful water Cascade directly behind it. 

I have reached another one of those portions of the wilderness where I stopped and looked behind me and just said wow. The nice thing about an up and back hike like this is I’ll get to see this on the way down so often the focus is forward and you miss what’s behind.

My Pct nemesis the Snow is making another appearance today, although this is not bad at all more of just a nuisance.

We continue back up along the river to come across more beautiful water cascades. We push on more with our goal becoming closer.

The views continue to be amazing in all directions. We passed through some larger snow fields on the way up as well.

We’ve arrive at twin Lakes. There’s a beautiful waterfall dropping down the Cliffside opposite of us. The lake is partially covered with ice, and there is a neat ice shelf just underwater. We’ve stopped here and are having a nice lunch, quick break, and then will head back.

We head back down and start crossing the snow again. We come over a slight rise with a beautiful Vista. Unfortunately, One of our team members took a slight trip and hurt her wrist.  We have used some of the snow to make an ice pack, wrapped it up, and she is continuing on like a trooper.

There is an area with the nearby river that has a beautiful Cascade and waterfall. It travels into the cut between the rocks, it is absolutely beautiful and powerful.

Soon we are back in the green foliage and passing by these large granite boulders that have moss covered faces. Something about the color contrast catches my eye. 

As we continue down the trail, we passed some more beautiful streams go over more granite and reach the junction for the side trail to the Enchanted Pools We’re going to take that side route, which is going to be a new for us from what we’ve been on earlier today, looking forward to it.

As we come to another river crossing we pick our way across this is the biggest we’ve had so far.  Shortly thereafter we enter a large granite rock face that we rock across

We’ve arrived to the first set of enchanted pools. They are beautiful. We took a little break and refilled some water before turning back.

We arrived back to Wrights Lake. As we came to the lake, we could see a gathering of a ducks floating on the surface.

We continue on the trail back along the shore of the lake to the opposite end. There we take a short road walk back to the cars.

9.25 miles today great people and beautiful scenery. I am thankful for God’s provision and creation.