Desolation Peak, East Bank Ross Lake — Saturday, Jun. 22, 2024

East Bank Trail:
We started at the east bank trailhead off highway 20. Friday night we hiked to our first camp spot, Roland Point, after picking up a walk up permit from the ranger station. Then the next day we hiked to lightning creek and met up with the rest of our party that boated in. We set up camp for the night and lightened our packs before heading up desolation.
The east bank trail is chill! It’s rolling and the one climb is very mild. You’re in the trees a lot but the break out parts where you get views of the lake are great. The bridges are pretty cool too!

Desolation Peak:
From lightning creek it’s about 6 miles to the top. The desolation trail is also 4500 ft. Of climbing. It’s a pretty consistent steady climb all the way up. And unfortunately in the trees for a while but with about 1500 left you start to break out. We got some wildflowers up in the alpine and then views of the surrounding peaks. It’s definitely a grind but worth it! The lookout at the top had luckily just opened and the ranger there was cool. He gave us a tour of the place and chatted with us a bit about what his duties are while he’s up there. Both times I’ve been to a manned lookout have been very fun experiences. Chatting with them is the most fun! We took some pics of the nearby Hozemeen and Jack mtns and then hustled back down to beat the dark. Took us 8 hrs in total with a 45 min break at the top.

Sunday we hung out at camp until our boat picked us up at 4pm and drove us back to the parking lot.

Tough doing so many miles on Saturday but an awesome trip to start the season!