The trail to Ferguson Lake takes off from the Eureka Creek Trail, a loop trail that skirted Wildcat Mountain and followed Eureka Creek. Now, the southern part of the Eureka Creek Trail is only maintained to the junction with the Ferguson Lake Trail 474A.
The Ferguson Lake - Eureka Creek Trail "junction" is hard to miss, as the obvious route just changes names in a left turn. An old sign indicating the route to Ferguson Lake is on a tree about 50 feet to the south, along the abandoned Eureka Creek Trail. From the "junction", Trail 474A does a shallow climbing traverse for 0.5 mile to get around a secondary ridge. A 0.1 mile shallow descent leads to Ferguson Lake, lying in a cirque of Wildcat Mountain.
There are campsites on the west and northwest side of the lake, with a large horse camp a ways northwest of the lake.
The trail is sporadically maintained, so expect a few logs to get over or under or around.
Note: The entire route from the Slate Pass trailhead to Ferguson Lake is 13.4 miles roundtrip with 3360 feet of elevation gain (1510 feet going in, 1750 feet coming out).
This trail is part of WTA's Lost Trails Campaign. Learn more about how we're saving lost trails across the state here.