Emigrant Lake
At the Heart of the Emigrant Wilderness
Emigrant Lake is considered one of the premier destinations in the Emigrant Wilderness. Anglers often spend a week there, working around the lake's 4¼-mile shoreline. Within easy walking distance are a number of other attractive lakes. Rounded granite domes, alpine meadows, cascading streams, and stately forests greet backpackers on the 14-mile journey to the lake. Most hikers break the trip in to the lake into 2 days.
Campsites are limited along the northern shoreline, but plenty of good sites can be found among the trees at either end of the nearly 2-mile-long lake.
Emigrant Lake
Emigrant Lake - Key Facts
Location: Emigrant Wilderness, Tuolumne County, California
Trailhead: Kennedy Meadows, elevation 6,300 feet
Highest point on the trail: Mosquito Pass, 9,360 feet
Emigrant Lake elevation: 8,825 feet
Elevation Gain: 3,060 feet
Hiking Distance: 14 miles
Best seasons: Mid-summer through fall
Campsites: Pleasant sites at either end of the lake, a few along the north shore
Wildlife
Bears are fairly shy in the Emigrant Wilderness. Nevertheless, it is always wise to take precautions by using a bear canister or hanging food from a tree limb using the counter-balance method. Rattlesnakes are most likely to be seen at lower elevations around Kennedy Meadows and Relief Reservoir. Mosquitoes can particularly troublesome around aptly named Mosquito Pass and Emigrant Lake, even into August. Since deer are hunted in the Emigrant Wilderness during hunting season, the deer tend to be fairly elusive. Rainbow trout can be caught in Emigrant Lake.
Grizzly Adams
Back in the 1850s when Grizzly Adams led a small expedition east across Sonora Pass via the emigrant trail, he described encountering all sorts of wildlife, including a nighttime attack on the travelers' camp by "panthers, wolves, and coyotes." See Theodore H. Hittell's Adventures of James Capen Adams, 1911.
