A collection of travel and adventure stories

Lakes Basin-Round Lake Loop Trail Hiking

Description and Directions >>

Description:
The Round Lake Loop Trail is a 3.75-mile trail located in the Lakes Basin Recreation Area. The Lakes Basin Recreation Area is located in Plumas and Sierra Counties in the Sierra Buttes of Northern California. This great trail winds through the forest and takes you to 5 mountain lakes: Round Lake, Silver Lake, Cub Lake, Little Bear Lake and Big Bear Lake.

Activities:
hiking, sightseeing

Directions:
From Sierra City, take Highway 49 about 5 miles to Gold Lake Highway. Continue about 8 miles, and then turn left at the Gold Lake Lodge road. Continue to parking area and trailhead (at end of parking lot).

Story Date 8/25/2004
Publish Date 11/18/2004

Story Perspectives >>

According to Mikala: Hiking along the Round Lake Loop trail was terrific. The trail winds through meadows, forests, over crests and around or near five different lakes.

We started our hike later in the afternoon (about 3 pm). The sun was shining golden over the green forest and meadows. Since it was so late in the year, most of the wildflowers had dried up. I can imagine what the meadows would look like in the springtime...amazing! We continued up an incline to a crest that overlooked the valley and a lake in the distance. As we continued hiking up the trail, I was a little afraid we had missed a sign at a fork and would be entering onto the Pacific Crest trail. I didn't want to be wandering aimlessly through the forest. However, my fears were unfounded, as there were signs to Round Lake a little further ahead.

Round Lake was very pretty and sparkled blue green. The view of the rock mountain in the background was terrific! We continued our hike along the shore and back up into the hills. A short distance further, we saw Silver Lake through the trees. We continued to the shore and enjoyed the beauty and quiet of another lake.

We continued along the trail and viewed yet more lakes along the way: Cub Lake and Little Bear Lake. We were descending back down the trail on the other side of the loop. We finally reached Big Bear Lake. Oh, how I wish we could get our kayaks up here. It would be so wonderful to paddle on a lake all to yourself. Each of the lakes had gorgeous views of rock mountains reflected on water.

At last, we had to head back to the trailhead, as the sun was starting to get low. There were many other trails close by that would also offer beautiful views, but we didn't have time on this trip. Maybe next time.