Heather Lake

Hiked to Heather Lake on a beautiful Sunday morning. We arrived at the trailhead around 10:30 and surprisingly, there were only five cars in the parking lot. You will need a US Forest Service Pass to park here.

The trail to the lake is basically obstacle free with one big caveat. There is a lot of exposed rock and roots on ths trail. When the rocks become wet, they are very slippery and great care should be taken in these areas to avoid slipping. Two members of my party slipped and fell on the trail and we were wearing boots with good tread. Like others who wrote previous trip reports for this trail, I saw a number of people hiking in tennis shoes and one person with open toed sandals. I started counting the number of people I saw wearing tennis shoes and lost count around 25 or so. You need good boots with a good tread on this trail, especially when it is wet.

There is plenty to look at while you are making your way to the lake, including a little waterfall where Heather Creek crosses the trail. This area is very slippery so take care! The lake is beautiful but the bugs are making up for lost time right now. If you are going to be at the lake longer than five minutes some bug spray would be helpful to have. There is no snow on the trail around the lake at this point and waterfalls can be heard crashing down the mountain behind you. There are plenty of places around the lake to sit down and picnic. We saw some people beating the heat by jumping in the small swimming hole near the south end of the lake as well.