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| McGee Creek Trail to Steelhead Lake, CA | |
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| | McGee Creek Trail to Steelhead Lake, CA | | | |
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McGee Creek Trail to Steelhead Lake, CA
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| Hiking | 11.90 Miles |
2,577 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.90 Miles | 9 Hrs 40 Mns | | 1.23 mph |
| 2,577 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was my second day hike on a 13 day car camping trip traveling south on HW395 in the Eastern Sierras of California. The trailhead is reached by driving up McGee Creek Road from HW395 about 9 miles south of the main turnoff to Mammoth Lakes. I car camped at the McGee Creek Campground which is the only CG on this road. The day I arrived the TH parking lot was nearly full in the early afternoon but the next day when I went hiking there were only a few cars and I only encountered 5 people all day on the trail.
The trail follows McGee Creek up the canyon with a gentle uphill grade. I was somewhat confused after hiking on a well worn trail on an old roadbed for about 0.8 miles when I saw two hikers passing me on another parallel trail about 25 yards uphill from me. They were nice enough to enlighten me that I was on an old road, not the official McGee Creek Trail. The trail starts following the roadbed about 0.3 miles further up canyon. They also informed me that the old road had led to a campground about 3 miles up canyon from the current trailhead. The road and campground were closed when the John Muir Wilderness was established in 1964. The trail was in good condition and easy to follow except at the first crossing of McGee Creek about 3 miles from the TH. The trail here splits into two trails for a short distance, one trail for horses to wade across the creek, and the other going upstream to an old foot bridge for people. I had read that this bridge was washed out. This "people" trail to the old bridge is not marked and I probably would not have seen it if I didn't have a gps track. I didn't want to wade across the creek at the horse crossing so started searching upstream for a dry crossing. Several small logs clumped together spanned a narrow section of the creek providing a dry crossing but probably wouldn't be usable during times of high water. The old "washed out" bridge further upstream became visible after I crossed the creek. It was a huge and very long log which had the top side sawn off flat. It had broken in several places and collapsed into the creek bed. It was still usable with the current low water level and I used it on the return. During periods of high water this creek crossing would probably be a forced turn around point for most hikers.
Continuing upstream the trail crosses back over the creek a couple of times but well placed rocks and a foot bridge provide dry crossings. The turnoff from the McGee Creek Trail to the Steelhead Lake Trail is marked with a sign. At this point the trail switchbacks through a thick forest up the east side of the canyon to reach the lake. There is a side trail leading to Grass Lake about a half mile up the Steelhead Lk Trail. I thought about taking a side trip to look at it but decided to save my energy for the main hike. It was a good decision. The views of Grass Lake from the trail as it continued to climb up the canyon side are as good or better than would be found by hiking in to that lake. Steelhead Lake is a real beauty and well worth the hike. After walking part way around the lake to a point with good lake views I found a sunny spot to take a break, have some lunch and take a short nap. It was such a pleasantly warm scenic location that I was reluctant to leave but knew it would get below freezing cold very quickly after the sun ducked below the mountain peaks. The return hike was all downhill and went quickly. |
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