My wife and I left early in the morning to start our hike. Unfortunatly we missed the pre sunrise time period, but we did arive at the trailhead before 5:30. The temperature was cold, still in the low 30s from the night before.
A few hundred yards from the trailhead the trail follows the creek. Seen in the image below. The peaks in the background of this shot are approx 13,000 feet high. Even in June they still have snow. The creek here is Rock Creek, there are lots of small brook trout throughout this lake, a great place forfishing. Alot of anglers and fly fishers love to fish here. The fishing is also good at Rock Creek Lake.
Rock Creek Lake which is about 1 mile before reaching the trailhead along Rock Creek Road, is a popular place for fishers. The lake has lots of large Rinbow and Bown Tout. Most of the back country lakes and the creek itself contains smaller Brook Tout, as well as some Rainbow and the very beautiful Golden Trout.
After about 15 mins of hiking and enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning, we came to the second lake. Marsh Lake. The water of this lake was smooth as glass in the still morning air. Makes for a great reflection shot. I arrived here at Marsh Lake just as the early morning warm sunlight was disapating.
After walking a good ways from Marsh Lake we came upon Heart Lake. This one was one of my favorites. There's a beautiful meadow near the lake with a few streams flowing in and out of the lake. Very beautiful area. We stopped off near the shore line and I took this shot here.
Because these lakes are at such high altitude, the water remains very cold even through summer. Since there is nothing above these areas, the water remains unpolluted and crystal clear. Hopefully these lakes will remain clean and pollution free forever.
We hiked a total of 2 miles each way on our trip, our last stop was Long Lake. When at Long Lake we saw a few trout swimming around near the shoreline. At one point we were lucky enough to find a trout that was feeding off the surface of the water. I took the opportunity to snap off a few shots.
Little Lakes Valley is a beautiful Gem located in the Eastern Sierras of California. I enjoyed my trip and look forward to heading back there again.
