Lake Laura Backdoor
A short, beautiful, but very steep trail to Lake Laura and Lake Lillian. Gets you there in a quarter of the time, but breathing just as hard.
The road to the trailhead is drivable in a normal-clearance vehicle, with care. Forest Service is clearly doing some (minimal) maintenance. There is some brush that will touch your care, but no scratches. The trail itself starts out in heavy brush, but the thread is obvious. It crosses a minor creek, and starts the climb. The climb is very steep (fisherman's path), really class 2. On the way down, you will have to use your hands at least once. BE CAREFUL!!! However, the trail is in great shape, very clear at all times, and free of debris. In about a mile, you get to Lake Laura, small but pretty. The trail continues to the right, and in another half a mile, arrives at Lake Laura, medium-sized and very pretty. Rough(er) trail continues to Rampart Lakes, skirting lake Lillian on the left. All in all, a superb way of getting to Lake Lillian, much prettier (and shorter) than the road-walk-then-clearcut official trail.
Driving Directions:
Drive I-90 East to Hyak (exit 54). Cross under the freeway, turn right onto NF-4832 (paved). Continue until the pavement ends and the road turns uphill. Drive to the fourth sharp turn (switchback), where road NF-136 branches off to the left. Continue on NF-136, keeping right at a fork. At the first sharp right turn, there is a parking lot on the left. Park here. The trail starts form the parking lot. Recent Trip Reports
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trip reports for this hike.
Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail | Road to trailhead inaccessible
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Having done Bandera last week, I thought that there wouldn't be too much extra snow a few hundred fe...
Having done Bandera last week, I thought that there wouldn't be too much extra snow a few hundred feet higher in the mountains :) Well there was plenty of snow and my car couldn't actually make it to the service road cut-off on the NF-4832 road. We hiked up to the service road NF-136 and trudged down it.
Since I thought that there wasn't going to be much snow I didn't bring any snowshoes. After a few minutes on the road the snow got pretty deep but we just took turns being the leader and making the foot holes. The trek along the road was very pretty and well worth it. When we got to the mini parking lot 2 miles down the road we headed into the over grown bushes. I was glad that I'd done this hike last year or I would have been extremely weary of continuing on such a fleeting trail. We lost the trail several times but we eventually made it into the trees with the river to our left. We scrambled up the side of a steep hill to find where lake Laura should have been. It was all snowed over and we turned around since we didn't feel like going any higher. All in all it was a great hike but snowshoes would have made it much more fun
Mirror Lake, Lake Laura Backdoor
— Oct 24, 2009
— Sawin' Ya
Day hike
Issues:
Mudholes | Water on trail
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Tried to access TR 1302 via FR 5480, impassable to low-clearance cars due to flooded potholes approx...
Tried to access TR 1302 via FR 5480, impassable to low-clearance cars due to flooded potholes approx. 1 mile before the trailhead. High clearance vehicles might have better luck.
Plan B: Lake Laura: I heard it could be accessed via a rough trail off of FR 136, which basically parallels Rocky Run Creek. If you make it through the rough spots toward the end of the first 2 miles of that road, park at the sharp switchback, and start up the obvious trail that puts those last couple hundred feet of road to shame. I was expecting narrow, steep, brushy tread in the league of the "trail" from the East Fork Foss River to Necklace Valley... but this tread was steady, well-graded, gently padded with duff, and tricky only in a few isolated spots. We ran into two other couples whose aspirations were higher than ours: Lake Lillian, approx. 400 ft above Lake Laura. We saw the trail pushing on to the east and continuing to gain elevation, but my new boots convinced my feet that Lake Lillian would have to wait for another day. There has been a bit of maintenance done on this trail recently, but the last 500 ft of trail down to Laura Lake could use a bit of brushing and rerouting, to avoid muddy spots which will only get worse over time. Weather was chilly, a bit of snow on the trees. Winter is almost here.
Lake Lillian, Lake Laura Backdoor
— Jul 30, 2008
— Sho and co
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Overgrown | Bugs
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I went to check how the 'backdoor' trail to Lake Laura and Lillian was doing. It is doing quite wel...
I went to check how the 'backdoor' trail to Lake Laura and Lillian was doing. It is doing quite well. The road to the trailhead is drivable in a normal-clearance vehicle, with care. Forest Service is clearly doing some (minimal) maintenance. There is some brush that will touch your care, but no scratches.
The trail itself starts out in heavy brush, but the thread is obvious. It crosses a minor creek, and starts the climb. The climb is very steep (fisherman's path), really class 2. On the way down, I had to use my hands in one spot, and rely on my hiking stick a lot. However, the trail is in great shape, very clear at all times, and free of debris. But the best part is that in less than 1.5 miles and 40 minutes, having passed Lake Laura, I got to Lake Lillian, breathing very hard. The lake is beautiful, moscuitos are biting. Rough(er) trail exists to Rampart Lakes, but I didn't have time. Checked out the "official" trail to Lake Lillian on the way back (junction a few hundred feet before the lake), looked good. |
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