Walupt Lake and Walupt Creek — Sunday, Jun. 29, 2025

The Johnson Creek Road is starting to get pretty washboarded from Highway 12 and very dusty.  The last part of the road up to Walupt Lake has some huge holes, so drive carefully!  The trailhead parking is free and doesn't need a pass, but is fairly limited.  Our goal was to hike to the Walupt Creek crossing, and we made it, barely, because the mosquitos are out in force.  The creek crossing bridge is pretty much destroyed, but there is so little water in the creek that you can hop from sandbar to sandbar and get across.  The trail was in good shape except for one tree down we had walk around.  This is a mostly flat hike, and by far the best part is a side trip down to the end of Walupt Lake where the breezes kept the bugs away.  We saw 1 only other person on a Sunday afternoon in June, kinda strange!  The hiker had been in to Gertrude Lake and had run into a cougar there.