On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
UncleEbeneezer
After our long day driving around the Bridgeport area, we returned back to our campground just in time for a quick hike around Gull Lake. Like Silver Lake (featured in Part 2), Gull Lake is one of the fairly small lakes in June Lakes. It sits just across the street from Reversed Creek Campground and is supposed to be one of the good, easy hikes in the area. Seeing as we were still not acclimated, we figured this would be a great option for us in the late-afternoon/early-evening.
The Gull Lake Trail starts at the Gull Lake Campground, which looks like a great campground if you are into fishing, since most of the campsites are no more than a couple-dozen yards from the water (at most, some are right ON the shore). The rainstorm we had chased up in Dunderberg Meadows/Green Creek was now darkening the skies in June Lake when we started our hike. But fortunately it was heading away from us so we never got more than a momentary sprinkle on us.
Just past the end of the campground parking lot the trail turns into an actual dirt trail passing through a small grove of aspens.
After a short spell in the woods, the trail opens out to the Gull Lake Marina, which also has a nice park/playground. For the entirety of the Gull Lake Loop you can always see houses and other signs of civilization, so it’s not really your typical “hiking” experience. But it’s still very pretty and we only saw a handful of other people.
As you can see, not much aspen gold happening at Gull Lake just yet, but the combo of the marsh, water, aspens and mountains still made for a really beautiful view.
These guys looked like they were having a blast on their boat.
Coming around the back (West) side of the lake we finally felt briefly like were away from civilization.
Finally at the end of our quick hike, we were ready to head back to camp and start making some dinner. Tomorrow we planned to do a much more strenuous hike, so we would definitely need to rest up.
JPL
Calming!
Happy New Year
eclare
Very nice!
Geo Wilcox
Believe it or not, I have an aspen in my back yard that I did not plant (tree farmer here). I live in Indiana…
CCL
Beautiful photos
Torrey
Not a hiker, myself, so I very much appreciate these photos. And, as JPL noted, they are indeed calming and a pleasant way to start the new year.
Anyway
Nice pics. Fall vacays are the best, imo.
KatKapCC
Beautiful :D
mvr
Nice! I like the second shot with the trail headed out through the aspens. And actually I like them all.
Thanks!
MCat
Thanks! Those pictures make me feel so much better. So peaceful. And we can all use more peaceful.
BigJimSlade
Very nice again :-)
StringOnAStick
I love walking on trails with autumn color, especially aspens. Thanks!
Grumpy Old Railroader
Reminds me of a hike I took a while back around Wright’s Lake off U.S. 50 above Placerville. I came face to face with a (not large) black bear and we both just stood there looking at each other for a bit, his nose in the air sniffing. Then he ambled off into the trees. I guess after checking me over he thought “Too old. Meat is probably tough and stringy. Not worth the effort.”
UncleEbeneezer
Glad you all enjoyed the pix. Sorry for the late response. I didn’t realize my posts were scheduled for now (I was traveling).