Backpacking Grouse Ridge Loop | Tahoe National Forest

Backpacking Grouse Ridge Loop was our first backpacking trip of the year, our first time backpacking in Tahoe National Forest and our first opportunity to backpack with Shane’s brother who flew out to visit from Florida. And since you can’t go wrong with loop itineraries with lots of lakes, we were excited to head out to experience a new area and make new memories.

The backpacking Grouse Ridge loop itinerary that we decided upon links several different trails in the Grouse Ridge area. These trails lead past lake after lake with numerous opportunities for quick side trips to visit even more lakes!

Quick Info for Backpacking Sawmill and Island Lake Loop

Directions: From Truckee, follow CA-89 N for about 14 miles then turn left onto the paved Forest Road 07/Jackson Meadows Road. Follow FR 07 for about 10 miles to Jackson Meadows Reservoir. Here the road becomes Graniteville Road/301 and it turns to gravel and gradually gets rockier. Follow this road another 12 miles and you’ll reach Jackson Creek Campground. We found the drive to be really slow and bumpy with our big Suburban so we parked here and walked to the trailhead. But feel free to continue driving another 1.2 miles to reach the Grouse Ridge Trailhead at Sawmill Lake.

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Total Distance: About 18 miles

Good to Know: The trails that make up our backpacking loop can be accessed from other trailheads in the Donner Pass area as well.

Itinerary Breakdown:

Day 1:
Jackson Creek Campground to the Grouse Ridge Trailhead at Sawmill Lake — 1.2 miles
Grouse Ridge Trail to Lindsey Lake Trail — 3 miles
Lindsey Lake Trail led to an intersection with Crooked Lake Trail — 1.4 miles
At the intersection we followed Lindsey Lake Trail to Upper and Lower Rock Lakes and back — 1.6 miles
At the intersection we picked up Crooked Lake Trail and hiked to Island Lake where we set up camp — 3 miles

Day 2:
Camp spot at Island Lake to Round Lake and back to the intersection of Round Lake Trail — 1.4 miles
Round Lake Trail intersection to Milk Lake and back — 0.4 miles
We continued on Round Lake Trail to the Grouse Ridge Trail intersection — 0.3 miles
Grouse Ridge Trail back to our vehicle at Jackson Creek Campground — 5.9 miles

Check out our video!

Our Experience Backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake Loop

Day One

We headed out from our camp spot at Kyburz Flat and had smooth sailing all the way to Jackson Meadows Reservoir. When the road first turned to gravel it was well maintained and we were still moving right along. But then the road got much more rocky and we started going a lot slower. By the time we reached Jackson Creek Campground we were all ready to be done driving/riding. So we decided to start our backpacking Grouse Ridge loop from the campground to Sawmill Lake.

Grouse Ridge Trail

From Jackson Creek Campground we followed the dirt road up for about a mile until we reached Sawmill Lake. Sawmill Lake is a pretty large lake with really clear blue water, trees all around it and some granite mountains peeking up in the background.

Backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake loop started out on Grouse Ridge Trail which first crossed Sawmill Lake via the cement dam walkway. Once the walkway ended, the trail led to a really dramatic and beautiful rocky cascading area – the dam spillway.

It looks a little intense but it’s possible to follow the spillway down a bit to find a good route to rock hop across. This part was a bit tricky, especially keeping our balance with our bulky backpacks on. But the rocks and the water looked really cool here, like a destination in itself.

Once we reached the other side of the dam we continued to follow Grouse Creek Trail up through the woods. Here the trail climbed through the woods and we were in awe of some of the huge trees along the way!

After about 3 miles on Grouse Ridge Trail we made it to the intersection with Lindsey Lake Trail.

Lindsey Lake Trail

Lindsey Lake Trail is a side adventure on our backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake Loop. So we dropped off our backpacks at the intersection then went right on Lindsey Lake Trail for a quick side trip to Upper and Lower Rock Lakes.

From the intersection, we hiked .75 miles bypassing Upper Rock Lake and went to Lower Rock Lake first. The trail was pretty mellow while offering some nice views of the surrounding area and glimpses of Upper Rock Lake down below. Then the trail descended to Lower Rock Lake and a nice designated camping area.

Lower Rock Lake was a pretty lake with trees all along the shore and the far shore had a beautiful reddish rocky mountain backdrop that looked fun to climb! Along the shore we noticed an abundance of beautiful blue/green dragonflies in the grasses. The lake was a bit shallow and muddy near the shore with nothing to jump in off of so we opted to swim in Upper Rock Lake instead.

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So from Lower Rock Lake we hiked back up another quarter mile to reach Upper Rock Lake. Upper Rock Lake is a large, scenic lake with tall trees along the shore and sharing the same reddish rocky mountain backdrop as Lower Rock Lake. At first the trail brought us out to a beautiful lagoon area with deep clear blue just water past the rocky shore.

We followed the shoreline around the lake a bit until we found a rock near deep water that we could jump in from. After working up the courage we each jumped into Upper Creek Lake! And surprisingly, the water was a comfortable temperature! A welcome change from the higher elevation lakes that we are used to jumping in that literally take our breath away. We swam around a bit and then headed back to the intersection where we left our pack.

Crooked Lake Trail

The next leg of our backpacking Grouse Ridge loop headed left at the intersection onto Crooked Lake Trail towards Penner and Island Lake. And the views along this section of the trail was very beautiful of the mountains in the distance.

After about a mile we reached the shore of Penner Lake. Penner Lake was a really cool lake! There were rocks and boulders all around the lake contrasting with the beautiful blue water. They made for a great selection of places to jump in from!

Unfortunately, it was really busy here. Everywhere we looked there were people on the rocks and large groups of kids having a great time jumping in the water. It appeared to be a wonderful day hike destination. But when we backpack we prefer solitude so we kept on truckin’ on our backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake loop. It probably would have been challenging to find a camp spot here anyway.

After Penner Lake, the trail was a bit rocky as it climbed up granting gorgeous vast views! The mountains in the distance were beautiful and there were lakes down below. These lakes that we could see below looked really pretty with dramatic rocky shorelines.

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As the trail descended we assumed we would be heading towards the lakes but it continued past them. The next 1.5 miles were pretty and mellow, eventually reaching Island Lake. Since we passed up the intriguing Penner Lake we were excited to see that Island Lake has a fun, rocky shoreline as well! And you guessed it, an island!

We walked along the shore for a while until we found a great camp spot for the night. We dropped our stuff off and climbed up on the rocks to check out our backyard views of the lake.

Shane decided to jump in while it was still sunny out! Jason and I figured we’d have plenty of time to swim tomorrow. The lake was really beautiful in every direction and we had a great vantage point.

We made some dinner, set up camp and explored some more of the area around the lake.

As dusk began to fall, some clouds rolled in and put on quite a show making for an incredible sunset experience.

Day Two Backpacking Grouse Ridge Loop

We started day two of our backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake loop began with some Pop Tarts then we packed everything up. Yesterday we totally thought that we would swim in Island Lake today but the morning was a comfortable temperature with a cool breeze so the water was a bit less inviting. So we grabbed our backpacks and continued on our adventure.

The trail wandered along the shoreline of Island Lake and revealed another cute lake across from the south shore. And it had an island too! Shortly after that lake we reached another intersection. For our backpacking Island Lake loop we turn left here onto Round Lake Trail.

Round Lake Trail

After first turning left onto Round Lake Trail, we began to climb as we circled back paralleling the shore of Island Lake. At this new height, we could see all of Island Lake down below and it revealed some great vast views of the mountains in the distance. Gorgeous scenery all around!

This portion of backpacking Grouse Ridge loop had a few opportunities to turn off of the main trail to check out several other lakes. After about a mile we branched right for a quick jaunt down through the woods to Round Lake. Round Lake was a bit smaller with water just as clear and blue as Island Lake. There was a nice mix of trees and granite so it looked like a great lake to hang out at, climb around and even jump in!

We headed back to the trail and continued just a bit further where we reached another turn off. This little detour led us to Milk Lake. Milk Lake has a beautiful exposed granite mountain backdrop but the water seemed a bit more shallow here. Very beautiful.

We picked Round Lake Trail back up and continued for another mile or so. But there are other opportunities for extending the hike and seeing more lakes. After the mile or so on Round Lake Trail we branched left towards Grouse Ridge Trail to finish out our backpacking loop.

Grouse Ridge Trail

This final stretch of our trip backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake loop was mostly mild downhill through the woods at first. There were some exposed areas and we reached a small creek where we stopped for lunch.

That’s where we saw this cute frog!

And as we were hiking Grouse Ridge Trail we passed by Shotgun Lake which was a bit brown for swimming. But cool that we could see it right from the trail.

A bit further, the scenery along the trail was amazing! There was a stream cutting through a steep canyon with dramatic rock walls creating some small waterfalls. We couldn’t help but to keep peeking over the edge to see what the stream was doing now. There were some deep spots that would make a nice swimming hole and some areas that looked like they’d be fun to rock scramble! Looked like an area to have a whole separate adventure.

We continued on and finished out backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake loop by descending to the cascading rocky area at the Sawmill Dam. We climbed and jumped across the rocks managing to get to the other side without falling in. Though at this point it was pretty hot and the water rushing through the gorgeous rocky terrain looked like a lot of fun. Maybe next time. Once we crossed the dam we followed the dirt road back down to our vehicle at Jackson Creek Campground.

And for a nice little finale, on our walk on the dirt road Jason spotted a deer in the water nearby. It was a pretty cute sight to see.

Thanks for Reading!

Backpacking Grouse Ridge and Island Lake Loop was a great experience. The area was beautiful and the number of lakes we encountered was impressive. And making these memories out in such beautiful landscapes with Shane’s brother was awesome. Can’t wait to see what we’ll encounter next!

If you’d like to see more of our hikes and adventures, check out the articles below:

• Awesome Hikes in Lassen Volcanic National Park
• Backpacking North Halfmoon Lake + Mt Massive Summit
• Hiking Point Trail in West Clear Creek Wilderness
• Humphreys Peak via Inner Basin Trail

We love adventuring and have been living on the road full time for awhile now. When we’re not on an adventure or at the skatepark we’re working hard on our hand painted one of a kind longboards! If you’d like to see our latest lineup, head over to our Lost Coast Longboarding Shop. We also design and screen print our own shirts!

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