8/04/2016

Little Lakes Valley Hiking 2016 (2) ~ Rock Creek Lake

YouTube Video around Rock Creek Lake




   Here is the report of the hiking, first of all, first of all, I am writing about Rock Creek Lake.

Camp site selection
   This time we camped at Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground instead of French Camp where we stayed last time.  Since there could be more chance to meet shower and lightning in the afternoon, it is probably better to start hiking earlier.  Therefore, my plan was to get there a day before and camping.  It is much easier to get to the trail head earlier if we stay there in the previous night.  The reason I picked French Camp last time was on-line reservation.   It was really last minutes and that was only camp site I could reserve on-line.   It was okay just for a night.  But it was hot in day time due to lower elevation.   It was over 90 degrees C in daytime.  We also found camp sites at Rock Creek Lake when we spent some time in the first day last time.   The camp site was much better than French Camp.  That was why we tried Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground this time. 
   The problem for the site was that I could not reserve the site at Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground on-line.   The reservation site said “First Come First Served”.   The other sites near the Lake, named East Fork Camp Ground had only one site which could be reserved on-line and the rest of sites were the same as Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground.  Only sites I could reserve were French Camp.   So, there would be some risk we might not get a camp site if we did not reserved in advance.   Our arrival date was Saturday and time we could be there is some time late in the morning.   We did not know how many people stayed there before Friday night.  Even though, we prefer to stay at Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground based on our experience last time.   We decided to take a risk.

First Come First Served, what was the result?
   We left our home at 6am and were arrived at Rock Creek Lake around 11am on Saturday.  We drove around to see if there were any empty sites or not.   However, it was not very clear which sites were not occupied.   When I was looking for empty sites, I found camp site managers.   When I checked them if there is any sites available, they told me there could be two sites.  However, the previous group might not have left.  So we needed to wait for their check-out.  Then, we could start setting up and pay the fee.  Unfortunately, one of sites they mentioned, the party did not have plan to leave.  So far, only one site was available for our group.  We have two families and we wanted to get two sites.   But we had to share one site with two family this time.  A good thing was the site was large enough for two families.   It seems that there were many groups who stayed there before Friday nights.   Many groups stay there for more than a few days.  So it is probably better to have a backup plan when people try to get sites at Rock Creek Lake Camp Ground.

 Around Rock Creek Lake
   The sites are nice, many sites are next to the lake and a creek.  Some of them were playing at the lake, some of them were fishing.   Many people caught good size of rainbow trout.  Many sites were not really next to a car.  We had to park at a parking lots, a sites allow to park up to two cars and any additional cars will be additional charge.   Therefore, we had to carry all stuff for camping from a car to the site.  It is about a few minutes.  So it would be better to pack camping stuff well, then it could be easy to carry them.  Each site has a table, a food locker and a fire pit.
   According to people who stay before Saturday, it was raining in previous a few days and many group left on Saturday morning.   They might plan to stay there longer.   So I realized we were really lucky to get a site over there.
   It was comfortable weather in daytime.  It was a little windy, but it was not too bad.   After sunset, it was getting chilly due to higher elevation.  It is 9721 feet (2963m) elevation.  The night sky was really beautiful, however we had to sleep because we would had to wake up earlier for the hiking.   I guess it is better to stay more than one night if people have extra time. 

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