Susie Lake Falls

Post date: May 12, 2012 5:18:21 AM

This past weekend Britt, Penny, and I made a short trip into the Desolation Wilderness south of Lake Tahoe. Originally, we had planned on seeing Feather Falls, but decided to do something a little closer to home. We settled on a little hike from the Glen Alpine Trailhead either to Half Moon Lake or Grass Lake depending on the snow and our energy level. On the way to the trailhead we checked out Glen Alpine Falls (right). This is a really great waterfall that is less than 100 feet from the road. There were a few people at the waterfall when we got there after 10am, but I can imagine there being hoards here later in the spring and summer. We had to wait a little while for a few free-roaming kids to get out of our shots before taking some pictures. I'm not even a parent and I was nervous for them as they skipped over smaller threads of the creek to get to rocks further in the creek. The real parents apparently weren't worried at all. Anyway, after taking some pics we continued up to the trailhead and began hiking towards the Desolation Wilderness.A few early sections of the trail were flooded, so we had to weave in and out of the surrounding trees. Shortly, we came upon Modjeska Falls (left), sometimes referred to as Upper Glen Alpine Falls. Britt and I had been on this trail previously in 2009, but that was in August. Now, the creek was pretty full and the falls looked much better. After walking through the former Glen Alpine Springs Resort, we continued climbing up to the trail junction with Grass Lake where we had decided we would choose between Half Moon Lake and Grass Lake. There wasn't much snow around or above as far as we could see, but we decided to check out Lower Gilmore Falls just north of the junction and then head for Grass Lake. There's a nice viewpoint (below) off the trail just east of the first switchback that looks east down the Glen Alpine Canyon.The first obstacle in getting to Grass Lake is the creek coming down from Gilmore Lake. On this day, we had to walk a little ways downstream to find a few rocks to hop on across the creek. A little ways further up the trail we came to a large pool just upstream of a pinch point just above 7,000' elevation. Luckily, there's a fairly large tree trunk here that allows a person to cross on. However, I didn't see this and walked through the very cold water with my water shoes before Britt saw the log. Penny enjoyed swimming through the pool. We continued to another crossing, this time across a spring, before coming up to what I've called Grass Lake Falls. I'm not sure if this is a spill over from Glen Alpine Creek at higher flows or if its a separate spring, but it is a decent little ~20' waterfall.We started to run into a lot more snow as we continued climbing to the southwest before turning to the west. We arrived at the southeastern end of Grass Lake and followed its southern shore toward the peninsula at its northwestern end. A majority of the lake on this end was still frozen over, with a little bit of open water. At a few points along the shore are some great views of the mountains surrounding the lake. As we got closer to the northwestern end of the lake, we spotted Susie Lake Falls for the first time. This was my surprise for Britt and the reason for going to Grass Lake. We crossed below a few more small waterfalls along springs above the lake before walking over snow in the bay southeast of the peninsula. At the peninsula, we found a nice long log at the shore of the lake where all the snow had melted (below). We got out our lunches and enjoyed the views of Jacks Peak, Dicks Peak, and Susie Lake Falls. We especially enjoyed our time here because we were the only ones at the lake (at least on this end of the lake). The only sounds we heard were the wind, falling water, and the occasional bird. This is our idea of hiking and in most cases this is what we get to experience in the Sierras.