On our final day at Twin Lakes, we hiked back to the trailhead via an alternate route, heading cross country down the creek to visit the beautiful Enchanted Pool and its waterfall, after which we made a short bushwhacking hop to the Rockbound Pass Trail and on to the car, which finished the loop.
Several days earlier, we heard from the Wrights Lake Campground Host that there was a place called the “Enchanted Pools” up in the Twin Lakes area somewhere, but it wasn’t located on any official trail, or even on the map. When we were in town doing laundry the other day, I looked it up on the internet and found a couple of GPS tracks. I did my best to mark its rough location on my own CalTopo map, which was on my phone.
Our plan for today was to visit this pool on the way back to the car. It was going to require cross country travel, but Vicki and I were good at that, so I wasn’t worried. Finding the pool itself was going to be the tricky part. As far as I could tell, the best way to get there was to follow the creek downhill, and then we’d eventually have to strike the pool. Simple yet effective. If we didn’t get lost, that is, or cliffed out along the way.
We didn’t wake up particularly early that morning, as we had all day to get back to the car. We ate breakfast and packed up under some warm sunshine, then prepared to hit the trail. Initially, for the first mile or so, we would be hiking on the main Twin Lakes Trail. Once again, we crossed the marshy areas and marveled at their beauty, and their lack of late-season mosquitos! Nice.
The maps along here are confusing. My CalTopo MapBuilder Topo Map indicated that the outlet creek from lower Twin Lake was called the South Fork Silver Creek, but the official USFS Topographic Map had no name on it at all, while the South Fork Silver Creek was marked off to the south of us, leading up to Secret Lake. Comparing maps made me think that there was confusion about whether the named creek passed directly through Wrights Lake (and onward beyond the lake to the Twin Lakes or some other lakes) or turned east early to Secret Lake. It’s confusing. The even older USGS Topo Maps show it heading into Wrights Lake also, but not beyond it. Maybe a USFS cartographer got it wrong? Who knows? To settle matters, I made the Command Decision, for purposes of this hikingtales webpage, to give the creek its own, brand-new name: Twin Lakes Creek. Why not? If I’m lucky it will stick. And at least it’s properly descriptive.
We continued onward, hiking off-trail down the creek. It was mostly smooth, glaciated granite in this region, so the hiking was fun and easy. Very slabby, with good traction. There were plenty of places suitable for butt-sliding (if you dared), and a number of small waterfalls and cascades. This was turning out to be a fun hike!
Our biggest decision was which side of the creek we wanted to hike on. It was fairly easy to cross, especially when it flowed swiftly through narrow, water-worn channels in the stone. Other times it plunged into deep gorges, totally uncrossable, so making the right choice mattered. And if we made a wrong move, we backtracked and tried again.
I realize that I’ve included an awful lot of photos and videos here on this page. I’m not apologizing, either. It was really beautiful up there, and we were having a splendid time. It helped that it was downhill, of course, but that’s life. What goes up must come down, and we already sweated plenty for this fun two days ago.
Eventually, of course, we saw what looked to be the end of the fun granite slabs ahead of us, when a solid line of forest loomed downstream. I got out my GPS. It turned out that we were nearing the spot that might (or might not) be the Enchanted Pool. Or was it Enchanted Pools? I wasn’t sure. It looked like there was a cliff just ahead, as well. Which side of the creek should we choose? There was a deep gorge to the right, so it almost had to be the left. But first we needed to take a few more photos and videos, of course!
After a bit of scrambling, we descended on the left side of the creek, and came to an abrupt halt where thick brush stopped us from continuing downstream, and a large pool of water was on the right. Was this it? Was this the Enchanted Pool? Surely, it had to be. And that’s how we found it, by blindly following Twin Lakes Creek downstream until we couldn’t go any further. Hey! It worked, so why fix it? And then we took more photos.
We saw a possible spot for viewing the pool across the way, so we pushed through some brush and managed to get across the creek again. We were in the trees at this point, and once under them, the brush was reduced. It was easier to hike, and soon we found ourselves on the far side of the pool It turned out that this was the “true” spot for visiting the Enchanted Pool. There was even a spot to camp! If we had known, we might have camped here last night, but then again maybe not. Vicki really enjoyed all those trout I caught for dinner, and I wasn’t sure about catching any here.
We decided that this was going to be our official Morning Snack spot. We took off our packs and prepared to take a break as we took in the scenery. There was even a waterfall! Very enchanting. Did I take a lot of photos and videos? Heh. There’s no need to ask!
If it turns out that its proper name is truly the plural of pool, well, we didn’t see any other pools around to compare with this one. Maybe the others were downstream, deeper in the forest. But we never went that way. Every stream has pools, after all, but not many have one big pool with a waterfall like this one. I vote to call it Enchanted Pool, singular.
With this spot getting more and more popular, it wasn’t surprising that there was a Search and Rescue prop left here, as the total lack of trail meant that far too many people were getting lost in this trackless wilderness. Should I be posting this webpage about it? Probably not, but I can’t stop people from being unprepared in the woods. Everybody has a phone with a GPS nowadays, so there’s no excuse not to download some tracks and import them into a decent mapping app, followed by practicing on a regular trail first, then moving on to cross-country travel after developing some confidence. This CalTopo link will help; you can export GPX or KML files from that page for use in your own GPS or phone app. I recommend that you use CalTopo, of course, but Gaia, Garmin, or any other trail app should work fine, provided that it lets you download offline maps, as there may not be cell signal out there. Just don’t get lost! The Standard Disclaimers apply, and all decisions made by you are your own. And if you are worried, even after practicing, or even if you’re not worried, get yourself a Garmin InReach satellite communicator so you can call for help if need be. Thanks! You really don’t want to be in the News. It’s rarely a good thing.
Eventually, of course, it was time to go. as enchanting as this pool was, there were other idyllic spots in the world that needed visiting. So many waterfalls, so little time! We packed up our stuff (leaving the SAR prop in place) and tried to find our way out of there without hiking back up all those granite slabs, as lovely and fun as they were. My plan was to head for the nearest trail, provided that there was no UP involved, per Vicki’s instructions. We hiked through the edge of the forest, northwest from the pool, and soon broke out onto some wonderful granite slabs. This was exactly what the Doctor ordered.
Of course it didn’t last. Soon enough, there were thick bushes all around us. If you zoom in to our track on that CalTopo map you’ll see that we wandered around quite a bit before realizing that we were actually on the right path to begin with, and all we had to do was push through some brush at one tricky section. That’s when we discovered the “Use Trail” that other visitors to the Enchanted Pool must have used. This was the shortest and easiest route to the pool. If you can find it.
Once we were back on the main trails, life was good. It was difficult to get lost on a trail, and if you did then someone would walk by eventually and help you. After a short hike, the trail descended to the level of Wrights Lake, and the going was easy. There were plenty of great views back east, looking up toward the Crystal Range where we started that morning. It was really turning out to be a wonderful day.
Before we knew it, we were back at the footbridge over the creek (whatever its name really is) and the trailhead parking lot was just beyond that. We opened up the car and let out the hot air, then put our backpacks inside.
After that, we decided to spend the night just down the road at the Wrights Lake Campground. We’d been there before, and we liked it a lot. We needed some time to relax, and also to plan our next hiking adventure, here in the beautiful Desolation Wilderness.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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