Granite Creek Trail to Granite Lakes — Friday, Jun. 19, 2020

We got to the granite lake trailhead at about 8:20Am (Friday) and the parking lot was probably 3/4 of the way full but there was still parking at other trailheads on the way up that were an alternative option, as well. Bathrooms were open, bring hand sanitizer. Don’t forget your discover pass. The trail itself starts out nice and wide and you immediately get into a good amount of your elevation gain. This trail was nice because it had an assortment of different terrain from wide forest trail, creek crossings, narrow trail with tall bushes and open to sunlight (Enough that you probably want sunscreen on), etc. You also get to hear the river the whole way and see it many times along the hike. There were a lot of creek crossings and some didn’t have rocks to use as a bridge or were slick but I’m super clumsy and managed to make it across all of them and not get my feet wet (wore hiking boots). When you get to granite lake it becomes a free for all of climbing over large rocks and finding whatever path you want to take to enjoy the lake (unless we missed something...). There were bugs around the lake but not too bad. There were a good amount of people that we passed on the trail but not overcrowded. I found my trekking poles useful for the descent and crossing the creeks. And for those of you questioning the elevation and the distance of the hike... I am very out of shape and survived :). We just took our time. About 9.8 miles and 2300ft elevation gain. When we left the lot at about 2pm it was only half full of cars.