Pyramid Peak

Near: Placerville
Distance: 6 Miles
Elevation: 6,000 - 10,000 ft
Vegetation: Pine Forest to Moonscape
Last Visit: July 2020

Pyramid peak is a challenging day hike for humans, and the summit is particularly difficult for dogs.  There is no official trail up the mountain, but a well-worn use trail easily accessed from hwy 50 has become one of the more heavily used routes to any Tahoe area peak.  Because it was blazed by bushwackers, it's much more aggressive than most trails in the area, climbing around 4,000 feet in just over three miles. 

The finish is a fun scramble up 400 feet of jumbly boulders ranging in size from toaster ovens to refrigerators.  This summit is thus extremely challenging for dogs.  We think our whippet could have made it on his own when he was younger, bounding from rock to rock, but we ended up carrying him more than half the way up and most of the way down, which was quite tiring I can tell you.  Carrying a whippet up a flight of stairs is one thing.  Carrying one up a 400 foot tall pile of uneven boulders with lots of opportunities to slip and fall while you're feeling weak from a steep hike up to 10,000 feet is a different thing.  Doing that with a larger dog would have been hell. So don't start the summit section unless you're a strong hiker and confident you can carry your dog out, because if the bounding from rock to rock is too much for them they could really hurt themselves here. Exercise caution! 

If this sounds too much for your dog, but a steep dirt ramp up to 10,000 feet sounds fine, you can still hike up to the base of the boulder pyramid and circle around to the northwest shoulder of the peak without any significant scrambling.  From there you gain an excellent view of Mt Price and the cirque above Sylvia Lake.  I do advise making the summit if you can, though, perhaps taking turns with a hiking partner with one munching on snacks and waiting with your dog down at the base of the pyramid, while the other scrambles up and takes it in for a few minutes.  In my opinion, in the whole of the Lake Tahoe Basin, the only equal view to summit's panorama over the Desolation Wilderness is the view over Lake Tahoe from the top of Mt Tallac.

Rules

This hike enters the Desolation Wilderness.  Camping requires a wilderness permit from Recreation.gov, though if you wanted to camp around the upper portion of the mountain on your first night in I'm not sure how that would work,  as the quotes are all split out into a bunch of specific zones...  Even for a day hike, you technically need a wilderness permit.  Those are free and have no quota.  At official trailheads there's usually a kiosk to get one, but for a trip like Pyramid Peak off official trails you'll need to pick the permit form at an El Dorado National Forest ranger station.  There is a ranger station in Pollock Pines on the way up Hwy 50 if you're coming from the central valley.  Dogs OK off leash if under effective voice control.

Trailhead

There is no official trailhead.  The trail runs right into the side of CA 50 just east of the town of Strawberry.  Look out for the large programmable electric sign that is used for information on road conditions over Echo Summit.  If you hit the trailhead for Horsetail Falls in Twin Bridges, you've gone too far.  You can park in the wide shoulder under the sign, on the south side of the highway, or on the wide section of shoulder just west of the sign on the north side of the highway.  Use caution crossing the highway as it's usually pretty busy.  Walk east around a hundred yards from the sign, just as the east-bound lane is splitting into two lanes (and before you reach the two lane section in the west-bound lane) you should spot the trail coming down the steep embankment on the north side of the highway.  There are a few youtube posts these days that show how to spot the trail.

 

Route

Once you find the trail it's pretty easy to follow.  As the trail evolved from a bushwack, there are some vestigial old routes branching off here and there, sometimes with misleading cairns.  Until you're under the summit pyramid, the trail should remain pretty clear most of the time, so if you find yourself on a stretch were suddenly the trail seems less obvious than it was for more than 100 feet or so, you're probably off the main trail. Circle back and find it.  The route shoots up steeply the whole way, but it's a little less aggressive for roughly the middle third.  The lower third is very steep but well shaded.  Around a mile in, the trail crosses the creek you've been following and the tree cover starts to thin out basically dissappearing around mile 2.  Try and get your dog to take a healthy drink at the crossing.  The creek is still nearby for another mile or so, but will get less reliable and harder to reach as you climb.

Upon hitting the base of the pyramid, most people seem to just go straight up.  That works just fine for people, but it doesn't seem like the best route for dogs.  We found that staying to the left at this point and skirting around the base of the pyramid you can stay on dirt for a bit more climb, and gain the shoulder overlooking an impressive cirque to the north between Pyramid Peak and Mt Price.  This cuts out about 1/4 the boulder hopping.    From there if you want to attempt the summit with your dog I suggest you zig-zag up between the bushes on the lower section of the rocks to take advantage a few less bouldery stretches (see the annotated picture below) to reduce the slope but try to keep returning.  From the highest bush there's nothing left but to zig zag up to the summit. Try to keep returning the drop-off to the north (your left as you ascend) because near the top there is a section of much smaller rocks that will likely be easier for many dogs to navigate.  Once again, don't even start this climb if you're not sure you can carry your dog out if comes to it!

CalTopo Map: https://caltopo.com/m/7367

Pictures

Looking back at the electronic sign marking the parking area from the bottom of the trail. 

Looking back at 'Lover's Leap' from a lower section of the trail

Climbing up the shaded but steep first mile

The creek crossing near mile one. Drink up!

Around two miles into the hike.  This section is a mix of meadows, trees and manzanitia patches.

Nearing the peak now.  Our dog Presto is grabbing a drink in the muddy headwaters of the creek we've been following.

The summit pyramid of boulders

Presto navigating one of the easier sections of boulders with some difficulty.

The north west shoulder of Pyramid with a view over an unnamed pond above Lake Sylvia.  There was still some July snow on this side of the peak to give Presto a drink and stick a snowball under our hats.

My suggested start up the summit pyramid.  There are some brief sections of dirt to climb up here then it's all boulder hopping to the top from the upper bush.

Summit panorama north west

Summit panorama north east

Some wildflowers before we entered the trees again on our way down.