Devil's Peak: first attempt

Just understand - we spent a lot of time looking for the trail up Devil's Peak from the East side.  Not there.  Much time was spent in the search of the trail that indeed DID show up on both our GPS's and the map.  Speaking of GPS, John's fell out of his clip and some time was spent looking for it in the steep bushwhacking area.  Miraculously he found the exact spot of it's separation and was thus reunited.

So five of us drove through the Serene Lakes subdivision, past Royal Gorge Summit Station, and down a fairly good dirt road.  It wended it's way past Kidd Lake and such - probably on the access road all the way to the Devil's Outlook Warming Hut.  We went down to Cloud's Rest and more steeply down to the land bridge between the Cascade Lakes.  After that the beautiful trail went by lake after lake - one with the name of Long Lake.  We had views of the Sierra Crest, beautiful granite, and Devil's Peak right next to us.  Then we plunged further downhill and through old growth cedar forests with a lighter green understory of what I think is Thimbleberry.  It was remindful of a coastal hike. 

And so we gave up trying to locate the fabled connector around the bottom of Devil's Peak and hiked back up the beautiful trail so we could enjoy it once again.  We had hiked over 9 miles with over 1000 foot elevation gain.  Perhaps in two weeks we will give it another try by hiking down the west side of Devil's Peak.  We may attempt entering the area from further down the freeway near Kingvale. 

Two ideas for next week  are Loney Lake, from Blue Lake; and Buzzard's Roost near Sand Ridge Lake.

The following site will provide the lowdown about saving the area for recreational use.

http://www.tdlandtrust.org/news

 

Devil's Peak

picture and map from Frank