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Although the fishing is killer, some of the views to die for, and the history compelling, this was one of my least favorite hikes of recent memory, for numerous reasons, from terrain, to my own dumb decisions, to factors beyond my control. Status: Not yet proofread.

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➻ Quick Facts

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⤷Introduction

I’ve always avoided Ross Lake as I’ve never wanted the annoying, hot, dry climb, and the topography isn’t my cup of tea. However, I had considered doing it, going to Mile Long Lake, over to the Bear Lake Area, and back out. My preference would be for a trek that way, then down to Faler Lake and over Osbourne to Green River Lakes Trailhead, but I’d need someone else to go with me to get that done. 

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⤑Day 1: Glacier Creek Trailhead/Trail Lake Trailhead to Ross Lake

I had lots to do in the morning for work, plus some bench presses, and then I finally got on the road. I had to take the Juke (since sold for a Wagoneer L) as my wife needed the Jeep Wrangler, mostly because she preferred to drive it. The Juke sucks on dirt roads and in general, so after a lot of bumping along, I got to the trailhead around 1:15, and was on the trail 30 minutes later, watching jets zip overhead to Jackson. Two separate couples came down the trail while I was getting ready.I had to bring my jacket as the models said I might be up above the snow level. Despite being sunny and clear the entire duration on the valley floor, I expected that orographic effects and diurnal heating would lead to convective activity. Sure enough 2 minutes after getting on the trail, clouds poked over the mountains with virga hanging down. As it turns out, this late start would end up being a blessing, as it gave me much cooler temperatures.

Prior to settling on this hike, I’d been planning on going one to Klondike, but mom had asked that I save it for her.  Ross Lake is not only a hiked that she wouldn’t like, especially not to Bear Basin and out via the same route, but also the hike that would require taking a pack each day. On the other hand, Downs and Klondike Lake, though longer overall, would have at least a thousand feet less elevation gain, and also would allow for 12 mi to a primary camp, from which three easy day hikes could then be done, followed by either one long hike out, or two short days out. Honestly one long day would make a lot more sense. 

Because there was no real water that I knew of en route to Ross Lake, I brought some water in my pack with me, which made it heavier than I’d like. Because I’m getting older, I had also decided to order a Durston Ex-Mid One the day prior. Although I do not like magic sticks, it would allow me to have less weight on my back. Plus the price is so cheap, and if it performed well, I could buy a bigger version for times when I’m hiking with my daughter. I always hated my mom’s Nemo Hornet two person tent and I tried to get her to buy something else. Like me, she has a scarcity mindset, and so refused to spend the money. Even her footprint was mismatched —1P footprint for the 2P version. Why? Because when she first purchased it, she thought that she had purchased the one person version to save money. Oops. But, if I liked the X-Mid 2, I told her she could sell the Nemo Hornet and I would give her the Copper Spur HV UL1. The Copper Spur 1 is in fantastic shape now that I have fixed it up after she broke it during our hike to Brewster Lake, though my 2P tent is a little run through. 

The 16 or so switchbacks really sucked until I got  near the bottom of the cliff, and then it became much nicer and the climb much more gradual. God blessed me with intermittent sprinkles and continuous overcast-to-broken skies depending on the time I looked, and that made things a lot better. Also, thankfully I’d been worried I wouldn’t be hungry, as I’ve had some issues that have made me, well, not hungry (and have since become almost intolerable and of unknown origin—routine, unexpected vomiting, etc.). Thankfully though, once I passed the rock slide area, which is, by the way, very well engineered, I suddenly started feeling the desire to eat. Did I want my tater chips? Perhaps my chocolate cookies would be good. 

During the climb I listened to the Think Deeper folks (Joe, Will, Jack) talk about Chip and Joanna Gaines. My ex, Kristi, whose photos gets a lot of views here still from apparently anonymous admirers, had really loved them. I saw that Chip was talking about how he was a victim, and I could only think, no there were two little boys that were victims of not having a real family. Very, very sad. I switched to the JRE podcast listening to James Donald Forbes McCann, who is perhaps my favorite comedian, and sat beside a small stream, swatting mosquitoes and eating tater chips. I just like listening to that JDFM talk, especially when he talks about the James Donald Forbes McCann catamaran plan. I hope he gets a catamaran. Anyway I didn’t check my distance until 1.84 miles and boy was that demoralizing. At least through the first 1500 ft vertical I did clock in a steady 1.5 mph thanks to the cloudy skies. But still even as I’m speaking this (but you will see only after it is fixed via me and my keyboard) it’s like 3:28 and I have infinitely far to go.

After the sprinkles, the sky became consistently broken, sometimes windy, but mostly calm. The trail is fairly unremarkable past the rock slide; there’s a big switchback, then an area you can go and look down toward Lake Louise, out in a big field. I got a tiny bit of Verizon service and so texted my family and got the weather. Then it was out into the fields, crossing quickly and wondering why there is a marked trail to Whiskey Mountain. I entered an old burn, where I think there are some ancient Indian settlements, and soon was at the last flat, which is very green thanks to a small pond and marshy surroundings. I had to decide if I should go up through the forest to the West and then up onto the plateau (or to a small pond at the pass that leads down to Ann Lake). It was late so I decided to head down to Ross Lake. 

The plunge down from 10,333 to 9965 was precipitous and seemed that it must be impossible for horses, especially in one place I literally had to climb down. In the mud as I approached the lake was one set of female footprints heading in one and one set of male footprints sitting out. It was getting late, so I hurried and hoped I’d find spot without bothering others. A spot at 9790 had camping spots but was very far from the lake, so I kept on as the clouds got thicker. At the lakeside (7PM) there was nothing, just steep hillside into rocky shore. Across the way it seemed the same, but with more downed trees. The trail disappeared so I made my way uphill and took the easiest way around; a couple of spots about 100 vertical feet about the lake were just big enough to fit my tent, but lumpy with rocks and stuffed with downed vegetation. It seemed like I was in for a mess. 

I had to eventually head back down to the lake, and there I found a use trail which led me to a spot to camp, somewhat short of the outlet by about 1000 feet as the crow flies. It was well used,  and a nasty, no good, quite bad wind storm with rain blew. God bless me with that campsite, even prepped with firewood.  Although I’d wanted to reach the peninsula near the inlet to Ross Lake, with the rain and the cold and the wind, it wasn’t worth taking any chances. I was able to set up my tent on the east side of some trees, which both acted as a windbreak and prevented me from getting really wet. 

After I set up the tent I went ahead and got water and then started my food. I hadn’t been hungry, and it took me a while to find the will to eat. When I finally did, the Peak Refuel marinara and peach cobbler were decent enough. I finished the cobbler but I had a few spoonfuls of marinara left. Thanks to having some kava, I was very tired and relaxed. I dropped a satcom pin for my family and sent a message but got no reply. Hopefully at least the pin worked out. Eventually the storm went away, but that was after dark, and then the stars came out. I read and watched a tiny bit of The Accountant 2. I had watched The Account long ago during a hike in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, and it was a terrible movie. The second one was even worse.

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⤑Day 2: Fishing Ross Lake, Camp at Crystal Lake

I woke up at a disgusting 4:47. I really needed to rest to recoup, not so much from the previous day hiking as the previous days at work and with my family, where I had gotten no sleep. I fell back asleep until around 9:00, when the sun he hit up my tent. That was my sign for getting ready. Two people wandered by heading the way I’d come from before I was out of the tent, mostly discussing how to get where they were going, and eventually observing my tent.  By this point I had decided that it would be a fishing day, so I had no real desire to push myself. With any luck, I would end up at Mile Long Lake, but if the fishing was excellent, I would just change my plans and alter the hike, making what I thought of as The Canyon Loop. 

In any case if you follow the cairns above the campsite, there’s a use trail that takes you up to the outlet; you have to go east of the large, granite knolls, when along the side of the river to the west. The outlet had amazing fishing—20 inch fish all day long., and bigger than that, but too big for my tenkara rod.

The outlet at this had logs over it, or else you would have had to have waded rather deep water, moving very swiftly, to be able to get to the other side—not something I’d see myself even attempting. Due to the nature of the cascade below the logs/stringers right below that, it is not something I would have let my daughter go over without a rope attached to her.  On the other side was a place small place to camp right by the lake.

Beyond the camping spot the trail was indiscernible. I picked my way up and down,  through forest and over rock, wondering if I should be high up on the cliffs or…low down on the cliffs, by the water. In case you’re wondering, there is a large area to camp 800 feet past the outlet, and right beyond that, things become nearly vertical.  For one part, I had to negotiate a chute which I don’t think I could have gotten back up; it put a small hole in my bag and was not something to fall off of. It might be safer to take a wooded strip of land up and over to the east, then back down and around to the area of camping spots, but man that would add a lot of time.

Anyway, the going was not as quick as I would have liked, but I did stop and fish some more, and that accounted for well over an hour. Eventually you get near the inlet (not at it, but instead by a C-shaped spit of land in the lake) of Ross Lake and there are amazing camping spots. These are TRULY glorious, with great fishing to boot. I was so tempted to put my tent down among the tall trees, watching the giant waterfalls across the lake, reflecting on the almost cerulean blue shallows, but alas, there was much daylight left, so I decided to press on. 

A word to the wise: I would stick to the east rather than crossing over the granite outcropping if you want to make your way to the inlet of Ross Lake. This means some backtracking, but it’s better than what I did, which was a great deal of exposure, and a section where I had to lower my backpack via rope, then somehow manage to get myself down a sheer rock face, landing (and stopping) on a small ledge, which had I not, would have meant quite the fall. 

The fishing at the inlet was amazing and also had awesome spots to camp, but they lacked the beauty and backdrop of the section prior. After wasting way too much time fishing, I hustled to Upper Ross Lake just by following the river; there was a good log jam to cross at the outlet.

I forgot to take pictures of Ross Lake inlet. Oh well. Upper Ross outlet is featured.

From there I made my way to the talus cone beneath Crystal Lake. Getting there was a real slog through dense brush trees and downfall. If there were a fisherman’s trail I couldn’t find it, and this was some of the most miserable hiking I’d done in years, almost like going to Clear Lake from GRL trailhead. It took me an hour and two minutes to cover .55 miles, if that tells you anything. At that point I had the option of taking off my pack and rushing up to Crystal Lake, or keeping it on and heading for Mile Long Lake. I ended up deciding, because it was somewhat late in the day, that I would climb up to Crystal Lake with the pack on! My hope was that I could then find a quicker way back down, or at least a nice place to camp if not.

The climb of the talus was actually pretty easy and listening to Delivrd on YouTube distracted me from my thighs rebelling to the 1/2-mile long, 840′ vertical climb. It was actually pretty fun and the route finding was quite easy, with the toughest spot being krumholtz trees prior to the lake that were quite pokey and scratchy to get through. When I made it to Crystal Lake, it was pretty late. I didn’t see a quicker way down, and if the going to Mile Long Lake was as slow as between the outlet of Upper Ross and the talus cone, I’d be hiking in the dark. I went ahead and set up camp, which was nigh impossible. There was only one place that my tent fit, and it was right beside the lake; to make that work, I had to dig up a boulder. Everything else is steep hillside, boulder fields, and snaggle trees blanketing the ground. 

Crystal Lake, Wind River Range.

 Sunset was very beautiful and done no justice by my phone, but the cirque didn’t have a vast feel to it in the way of, say, the South Fork area. To the northwest, it looked like I might be able to rock and cliff scramble up to Ram Flat, and then make my way to some melt ponds, but with kids, I no longer wanted to risk that sort of thing. Instead, I contented myself to an early night, made food (far too much, but the dadgum French onion soup is so delicious), and then went to bed. It was another moonless yet sweaty night for me, but I dreamed of my precious daughter Vicca, and those are good dreams.

My Kuhl shots and my tent: both tough and lightweight! Both look sexier with me in them.

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⤑Day 3: A Half Day to Mile Long Lake

I got up at 6:00 in the morning and went to scope out the way up to Ram Flat, which looked like it did not so much exist after all; jets taunted me, zipping overhead for the ILS-Z runway 19 approach into Jackson. I returned along the side of Crystal Lake and made my way up a rocky section heading through a notch to the south, hoping to avoid a small chute mentioned by Nancy Pallister as being present south of the talus cone along Upper Ross Lake. Don’t do this. My hope was that perhaps I could find some easy way to reach the plateau above, and failing that, at least have an easier way down than back down the talus cone. Boy was that a stupid mistake. It was bands of cliffs that the contour lines did not indicate, which were filled with backtracking and forced descents. I couldn’t make it around to the flat, but in a more positive note, there were hummingbirds way up in the rocks with me, and they loved my backpack’s red flares.

I eventually committed to just trying to find a way down, in my mind despairing, thinking that there was no possible way that I could find a break in the cliffs. However, God blessed me and soon I was back in the trees…then Satan showed up again. The trees had bands of cliffs in them! Why!?! Everywhere!  It was a miserable slog that wasted 3 hours of the day. By the time I finally reached upper Ross Lake I was right by the inlet.

The very steep way down.

I could still, with the extra time, make it to Mile Long Lake, and then to Daphne Lake, and Bear Lake, and Bear Basin, and all the way back out. I had enough PTO, and I wouldn’t be missed. The thing was, I had wanted to go to Bear Basin for the fishing. Ironically, the excellent fishing at Ross Lake had made it so that I was unlikely to experience much time dedicated to excellent fishing at Bear Lake. I debated in my head as I munched on some jerky about what I should actually do. Eventually, I decided that I would make my way to Mile Lone Lake, as Nancy Palister said there was a great place to camp there, and I had been there once before and really liked it. Then I could do the miserable slog out through Bomber Basin. I was not looking forward to that. However this would open up other opportunities for me to make my way back to Bear Lake later on. Moreover, it would let me see my precious baby Vicca sooner, and would save me some PTO, which could end up being a trip to Universal Studios in Florida. You know how these things are, you have to find a bright spot. Still, I could not believe that I had wasted so much of the day trying to avoid a 6-ft chute as described by Nancy. I will say that if I had to do it again, I would avoid Crystal Lake and just take the piles of rocks of the east side of upper Ross Lake, as navigating through all the woods just sucks.

Along the way to Mile Long Lake, I stopped at a creek in the dense forest and had lunch, along with 10,000 mosquito friends, and then resumed my journey. There was not much even in the way of an animal trail to follow, and the climb seemed greater than you’d expect, thought it gradually became a more open forest which was much easier to traverse. Nancy had mentioned something about crossing the riparian zone beneath Mile Long Lake, IIRC, but I have never found this the best method. I prefer to sidehill right near the outlet and—well, less babbling about that, as it’s for tomorrow. I got to MLL at 2:30ish, debated going on to Bear Basin, but decided that I owed my eldest daughter a good trip to Universal, so the PTO needed to be saved. Instead, I redeemed the day of horror (cliffs) and decided that I’d make it one of relaxing—reading, perhaps even napping, and watching some old Hell’s Kitchen.The camping spots were perfect, with old, wizened trees (I did worry about the dead ones, which looked like Whitebark Pines, falling over on me) providing a wind break, and tons of perfect, flat, grassy ground.  I washed off my feet in the very cold lake, took a wade, and thought about a swim—but the heat of the day had given way to virga-filled skies and increasing wind, and it was too cold to really go full plunge—at least not without someone there to witness my impressive courage. Furthermore, the mosquitoes were insane. Even as I dictate this with my voice, there are 12 mosquitoes on the tent wall beside me! 

I lounged around in my Kuhl Upriser shorts until it started getting too cool for Kuhl, then got in my sleeping bag, going to bed pretty early. 

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⤑Day 4: Hike Out (Bomber Lake and More)

Sunday. Got up at 6:00 to find it cold and frozen out. Slowly got ready for the day while listening to Clark Howard, who reminded me to start a Roth 401K, which I did later on. After getting some water and warming up, I left at 0800, heading to the outlet, down to its left, and then sidehilling to toward the next lake, which is around 10,388. I’ve described the route out in another post, so I won’t discuss it too much in this one.

I circumnavigated the unnamed lake, considered going into the canyon by Spider Peak (but had no desire), and so beelined toward the lower points of the pass down to Bomber Canyon. Once at the top, I had more hummingbirds assault me, and also witnessed a massive rockfall, a reminder to avoid hanging out at the bottom of cliffs.

You can look at my route and see that I stayed north of Bomber Lake. I recall liking the cabin in the woods on the south edge, but didn’t want to go through the dense forest or have to make Bomber Lake’s outlet crossing. The burnscar was still tedious to cross.

Below Bomber Lake (where I listened to Tucker Carlson interview, and show just how deranged Ted Cruz is), the trail was much less distinct than the previous time I’d been there. It came and went, but was mostly unobservable. At the waterfall I rehydrated and ate, then followed the trail until it vanished—a Hilarious episode of Inner Man Radio called LIFE HACK: Get a New Spouse in Just TEN Days! kept me mighty entertained. Once you cross the creek, the next 2-ish miles are hellish marshes and rocks and old, dead, burned forest. Shockingly, I FOUND a lens cap I’d lost in 2017. I guess I’m a creature of habit! I also decided to just wade the shallow sections of river, as it was faster than watching out for holes in the burn. Inner Man Radio’s podcast on Israel kept me entertained; descending through 9400’ Iost the trail for a bit, but it appeared again 1000’ later, and then I moved pretty swiftly, stopping only to get water at some cascades and to see the downed bomber, this time wading the river on the way there, then using the logjam/rockpile above the falls on the way out.

I again missed the trail leaving the downed bomber, as it was so faint that I just walked through over it. I knew where I was heading made no sense, so I backtracked and headed for the low spot in the little pseudo-pass, then followed the trail on down and out. Until the junction with the Glacier Trail, it was a lot rougher than before, filled with deadfall, probably from the 2020 wind event. The trudge on out seemed to take forever, and not even Jimmy Carr made it go by faster. I finally got to the Juke at 5:10PM. After I got there, a couple came down the trail after me, but in summary, I’d only heard two people and seen zero on the entire actual hike.  Oh, and I need to listen to the “Retire Earlier” podcast with Wes something. 

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➤Conclusion and Rating

This hike was fine for fishing, but I’d certainly never do it again.

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•  My scientific rating system. Although the fishing was great, there is no reason to do the full canyon run, as this area can be split into more preferable, more scenic, more efficient excursions. For example, Ross Lake should probably be made into a fishing trip with Hidden Lake down below, and the crashed bomber should be a day hike, or added onto a hike over into Dinwoody. Mile Long Lake is not really worth the visit as there are better ways to reach the flats above if you’re going to Bear Basin.
• Beauty. I love the beauty of the Ross Lake peninsula, but other than that, this hike certainly doesn’t rival much easier options like Stough Basin to the south or even Polaris and Sonnicant for the stronger hiker (speed) who has extra days. Like Sonnicant, people are sparse, though in this case, it’s not the Rez keeping them out. As my friend David King once said, “Lucas, sometime when there’s no trail, there’s a reason for that.)
• Camping spots. Not that hard to find, but this is definitely one where you’ll be better served by having tent spots in mind (at least general locations) rather than just wandering until the sun runs out, as I am wont to do.
• Crowds. I heard two other hikers at Ross Lake, but other than that, as above, there is a reason that you won’t see many peple.
• Difficulty. Strenuous, though most of the misery would be the initial climb
• Fishing. I caught a ton of fish! Sometimes I caught no fish. But it was still great. 🙂
• History. Not really any significant history apart from that off fence.
• Over/Under Bracket: Marten Lake and Squaretop are better, while Victor Lake is worse.

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