NorCal Dog Trails: Boulder Lake and Little Boulder Lake

Near: Weaverville
Distance: 3.5 - 6.5 miles
Elevation: 5,800 - 6,400 ft
Surface: Dirt and Snow
Vegetation: Pine Forest
Last visit: 5/30/16

Boulder Lake and Little Boulder Lake are yet more scenic alpine lakes in the Trinity Alps. They're less spectacular than some other lakes in the Trinities, but they're a great choice if you're looking for scenic lake with only modest effort to get there. I liked Little Boulder Lake a bit more as Boulder lake was shallow and surprisingly muddy given it's name. There was still melt water flowing into it... but Little Boulder Lake looked like a great place for a swim in a month or two... Both lakes are in the shadow of rocky minor peaks. We scrambled up on the slopes of the one overlooking Boulder Lake (called Tapie peak, I'm told, though it wasn't labeled on our map), following an off-trail route we found on another blog, and were rewarded with views of nearby Tapie Lake and Mt. Shasta off to the north.

Links

http://www.summitpost.org/boulder-lake-trail/537406
https://hikemtshasta.com/trails-further-afield/trinity-alps-trails/boulder-lake-trail/

Trailhead

This trailhead is a bit out of the way. It requires about 10 miles of driving on a windy dirt road not entirely on most maps. I've included a capture from Caltopo here. The road was OK for us in a prius, as it was in pretty good shape and only required a few careful maneuvers around rocks and water bars. Be warned that a bad season of storms could easily render it impassible to low clearance vehicles, though. Head north of Trinity Lake on Hwy 3. Just south of Coffee Creek, turn onto Forest Service Road 37N52, which is signed for the Boulder Lakes trailhead. There was one intersection that didn't seem to be signed explicitly, just after the road makes a bit of a hairpin, stay right here to take road 37N53 all the way up to the trailhead.

The Road to the Boulder Lakes trailhead

Route

Caltopo Map: http://caltopo.com/m/SKSK

The Route to Little Boulder Lake is short and straightforward. The trail is about half through open, shrubby forest and half under a thicker pine canopy. There is one signed intersection to turn off to Little Boulder Lake. Be sure to take it and not just plow ahead to Boulder Lake, as the little lake is more scenic (in my opinion).

To continue to Boulder Lake, just return to the main trail and drop down a few hundred feet to the lake. The trail hits an intersection at the north end of the lake. Head south along the east side of the lake to continue up towards Tapie peak or find the campsites on the south end of the lake.

Boulder Lake, with Tapie Peak behind

South from Boulder Lake, the trail climbs up along a stream to the shoulder of Tapie peak, then over a ridge behind. A few blog posts recommended checking out Tapie and Lost and Found lakes, just east of Tapie Peak, by taking a cross-country scramble across the open boulder fields on Tapie's north face. We hiked part of that route, but were slowed quite a bit playing "find the trail" up along the river as there was still plentiful snow here on the shaded north-facing slope. The key to starting the scramble is finding the meadow directly east of Tapie peak as the stream fades out. As you start to cross the boulders you should see some small cairns marking the way. As you work your way west around the peak, Mt. Shasta comes into view. As you cross a minor ridge, lake Tapie comes into view. At this point, as we took in the view of Tapie Lake and Mt. Shasta, we decided to declare victory and head home.