Trip Report
Day Hike - Thompson Lake
Big beautiful lake worth the work to get there. We had the lakeshore to ourselves. Ripe huckleberries, thimbleberries & strawberries.
Roseanne Lorenzana
- Wed, Aug 13, 2025
- Day Hike - Thompson Lake
- Granite Creek Trail
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Vault toilet at TH is locked. Please practice Leave-No-Trace if you use the surrounding forest (many haven't). At crossings, stream levels very low. After first ~1.3 miles, vegetation often overgrows the trail, but after the Granite/Thompson junction there's little overgrowth. Trail descending from the high point (4,257' sort of a pass) to Thompson lake is often goes straight downhill, frequently degraded, many places sloping downhill (instead of level-ish), several large logs across the trail require climbing over or carefully walking between the broken fragments. Most of the huckleberries and/or blueberries were along the trail that descends to the lakeshore.
Started up that trail at 8AM. Only a couple other people on the trail today. Weather forecast said the high was supposed to be 65º but our drenching perspiration suggested it was more like the 80's. This made our leisurely lunch at Thompson Lake welcomed for it's easy access to swim and/or wade. Abundance of ripe berries along the trail ... it was not unusual to lose sight of our hikers at the rear when they stopped at a loaded shrub. But these stops were also welcome for the rest of us due to the heat and a chance to hydrate.