Anderson and Watson Lakes — Saturday, Jul. 20, 2019

The weather was perfect for this hike today. Road was rough in spots, but doable. The trail had some rough spots as well, but all of them were pretty easy to get around. One of the bridges has been destroyed by a fallen tree, but the creek is currently dry so that wasn’t an issue. A couple of other trees were down across the trail, but also not a problem. The only real obstacle was the mud on almost the entire trail. It caused us to go a little slower than usual.

There were a lot of little bugs, but I didn’t wear any bug spray and didn’t get any bites.

One really awesome (and very rare) thing I noticed was that there wasn’t any trash on the trail. There were many campers and day hikers, and not so much as a peanut shell. Thank you to everyone following leave no trace! It makes such a huge difference for the environment and for the experience of hikers and wildlife.

The lakes were great as always. We did both Anderson and Watson Lakes, but skipped the butte today. It would have been a pretty day for it.

By the time we got back to the trailhead at 11:00 AM, there were zero spots to park. I felt bad for the many, many cars we passed on their way up.

Thanks, as always, to the dedicated WTA volunteers who keep the tail in great shape. I love the boardwalks on this trail almost as much as I love the lakes!