September 7, 2006

Trail: Lake Margaret– Highway 88 – El Dorado National Forest
Distance: 5 miles round trip
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Elevation Gain: 600 feet
Highest point: 7750 feet

We drove to the Lake Margaret trailhead on Highway 88 just west of Caples Lake. No fees for parking or day use. The trail was fairly well marked with posts and tree markings with rock cairns guiding you over frequent slabs and boulders. Caples Creek is crossed twice by the trail using fallen logs to bridge the creek. The weather was clear and in the mid 70's. Some wildflowers were still blooming, especially the lupine.

We actually did not make it to Lake Margaret, but didn't know that for sure until we returned. The last part of the trail was over large boulders and we were unsure of the trail markings. We had passed a body of water we thought might have been the lake, so we felt we may have overshot our destination. We took a picture of what we thought was the lake and compared it to a picture of Lake Margaret found online - they were not the same. So we shall return some day and make it to the lake. We missed it by a quarter mile.

Along the trail we met a group of people in their 60's and 70's. Considering the rock slabs and boulders on the trail, we were pretty impressed by their accomplishment.


Creek along the way.

Not Lake Margaret. Pretty anyway. Maybe next year.