Journeys›Photograph

Mid-October Camping Days at Lake Alpine

·Alpine County, California·#hiking#tahoe#sierra nevada#camping#autumn#landscape
A beige and blue tent with an open door showing a sleeping bag, a yellow tent in the background, and fallen logs in a forest.

A few days of camping and hiking down in Alpine County, at Lake Alpine in the Stanislaus National Forest — right at the tail end of the season, since the campground only runs to mid-October. At 7,300 feet the mornings were cold enough that nobody hurried out of the tents. Ours went up next to a huge downed log; the neighbors' green and orange domes sat in the trees a short walk off, everything under red fir and lodgepole.

From camp it's a short walk to the water. There's a rock island near shore with a single pine growing straight out of it, and someone was out in a boat on the far side, too far to tell if they were fishing. Another day we hiked out to a smaller lake, darker blue and ringed tight with trees.

The last stretch took us through a big open meadow, grass gone gold and the willows along the creek turned red. The creek itself was down to a chain of pools between gravel bars, and out in the middle of the flat there was one long bleached log and not much else.

A green and an orange tent are pitched in a forest clearing with tall trees and sunlight.Two tents, one green and one orange, are set up in a sunlit pine forest campsite with rocks and logs.Bright sun rays in a blue sky above a tree-covered mountain, a lake with a rocky island, and shimmering water.A sunny mountain lake landscape with a small, rocky island and a dense forest on the surrounding hills.A sun-drenched mountain lake with a small rocky island and trees, surrounded by a dense forested mountain under a clear blue sky.A blue lake foregrounds a dense evergreen forest and rocky mountain under a clear blue sky.A river flows through a golden meadow with a forest hillside under a clear blue sky.A panoramic landscape with a bright blue sky over mountains, a golden-brown plain, a winding river, and a large fallen log.

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