A collection of travel and adventure stories

Loon Lake Kayaking

Description and Directions >>

Description:
Loon Lake and Pleasant Lake are located in the Crystal Basin Recreation Area in the Sierra mountains of Northern California. This lake is 600 surface areas with a boat ramp and camping facilities, including environmental boat-in camping. The paddle reported here (to the mouth of Ellis Creek) is about 9 miles roundtrip.

Activities:
kayaking, boating, fishing, camping, picnicking, swimming, sightseeing

Directions:
Loon Lake is part of the Crystal Basin Recreation Area. To get there, take Highway 50 East from Placerville approximately 21 miles. Turn left onto Ice House Road and continue approximately 24 miles. Take the road to the right after the sign saying "Loon Lake." Follow this road about 4 miles, where you will then go to the right toward the Loon Lake Campground. The boat ramp is about 1/4 mile further.

Story Date 8/3/2003
Publish Date 4/15/2004

Story Perspectives >>

According to Mikala: As with a lot of lakes in the Sierras, Loon Lake is very pretty. The lake is surrounded by pine trees, and is on the edge of the Desolation Wilderness.

The more interesting part of the lake is near the northeastern portion. There are various boat-in campsites here, and some nice little coves to explore. We landed at one of the campsite locations to explore for future reference. I noticed that these campsites contained a picnic table and there was a small vault toilet close by.

After exploring, we continued on around granite boulders and islands to another large cove. We landed on a small beach inside the cove and set up our chairs and lunch on a large granite hill. From here, we could see a large green meadow with a creek meandering through it. The mountains were visible in the near distance. After eating lunch, we kayaked up the small creek, but we were only able to go a little ways before it narrowed.

On the way back to the boat ramp, the afternoon winds had picked up considerably. I had to paddle very hard to make any headway, but riding over each whitecap was fun.

There are also some islands to the north of the boat ramp, but we didn't have time to explore them on this trip. One of these days, we will head back to Loon Lake for some boat-in camping.