South Pass Lake Trail #3720

Dogs Off-leash

Features Fishing · Lake · Swimming · Wildflowers

This is a side trail from the Mountain Lakes Loop Trail #3727 that provides access to three, less visited lakes in this wilderness. It's a less used, and hence rougher, trail than the loop trail but not hard to follow. Reaching Mystic Lake requires about 200 yards of off-trail travel. The same is true for Lake 6961. The established Forest Service trail ends at South Pass Lake. The shortest year-round (snow permitting) access to these lakes is from the Clover Creek Trailhead.

Years ago, this trail used to continue down and east from South Pass Lake to some Forest Service roads linked to Highway 140. In recent years, this old trail has been somewhat recovered (it's still very rough) and can be used to reach South Pass Lake from the east. However, this eastern trailhead is on private land owned by Green Diamond. They open their Gate #7 from mid August through mid November to allow public access to this trailhead. Then it's directly accessible with a 4WD vehicle or via a 1.5 mile hike up from where a 2WD can reach.