LA Wilder Hikes - Lyman Lakes August 10 - Aug 12, 2008

Dave and I left around 3:30pm after Dave got off work and headed up to the Spider Meadows trail head. We were surprised at how many cars were there on a Sunday evening. We hadn't expected it to be quite so crowded. We hiked in to Spider Meadows and by the time we got there the wind had picked up and the sun had gone behind the mountains. So, we were both getting cold. All the camp sites were full at Spider Meadows and the flowers spent. We had to continue up toward the Spider Gap junction and finally found a great camp site up on a knob on a knoll just before the junction.

The next morning we were visited by a marmot while we got ready to hike over to Lyman Lakes. We left our tent at the camp site and took our fanny packs with lunch over to the lakes. We hiked up to Spider Gap across Spider Glacier. It wasn't difficult at all. We weren't sure what it was going to look like on the other side so we had brought our ice axes just in case. But, we really didn't need them.

The lakes still had some miniature icebergs in them. Definitely too high for fish, but I had brought my pole, just in case. The valley below the lakes is so picture perfect, we both wished we had a couple more days to explore them. We've decided we need to plan a cross-country trip next year and hike over to Holden.

By the time we headed back the sun was already starting to go down. So, we did a lot of glissading down the glacier to get back before dark.

The next day we took a little side trip over to Phelps Basin and discovered that even though it is not that much higher than Spider Meadows, the flowers were at peak bloom! LUSH! I'll have to remember that. If it's too late for flowers at Spider Meadows, head over to Phelps Basin, only about 1 1/2 miles from Spider Meadows.