This was an absolutely beautiful hike. Got to the TH about 6:45 to find four other cars. Used the clean and fully stocked restrooms, and was on the trail by 7:00am... got .5mi in and realized I left my phone on the car and had to go back, so bonus miles. :-)
The climb starts off quickly on this trail to climb up to meet the Granite Creek Connector that comes from the direction of Mailbox Peak. Once you meet up with the connector, the climbs are more gradual over the course of the trail.
The trail essentially follows the river towards the lake and you can hear some form of running water for most of the journey. There are some small creeks and stream crossings, but there are plenty of rocks to help you get across. The biggest crossing has a nice wooden bridge with a bench made from a log if you want to rest for a bit.
.7 miles from the lake is an intersection that affords you a choice to continue up towards Thompson Lake, or to head down to Granite lake. Once you get down to Granite lake, there's one last little water crossing over an old log or some good size rocks.
When you get to the lake, the trail becomes a little less clear as there appears to be little spurs that head in a number of different directions. Ultimately, they all put you at the edge of the lake for a beautiful view. Unfortunately for my hike, the morning cloud cover had not burned off yet, but the lake was still beautiful none-the-less.
One callout for my fellow hikers is the bugs get progressive worse as you get closer to the lake. I sat and enjoyed a small meal before going back, but was continuously shooing gnats away, at least they were gnat like. It might have been different once sun started heating things up later though.
I would do this hike again, and will probably make it a two lake day since Thompson lake is just up another couple of miles.
Round trip was clocked at just about 8.6 miles for me.
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