Summer was fading fast; however, the intense heat in Mariposa County was not. To escape the sweltering weather, Chris and I headed up to the high country for the day. Our destination: Elizabeth Lake in Yosemite National Park, a 4.6 mile roundtrip hike.
It was a contradictory trail: flat, wide and dusty in places, and at times very narrow and rocky. It consistently led uphill and then leveled off near the lake.
As we walked, we abutted Unicorn Creek which drained from Elizabeth Lake. It was sad to see that the creek was quite dry. I’ve added a comparison photo from two years ago (almost to the day).
As we entered a small meadow, the view opened up to Unicorn Peak.
Elizabeth Lake sits at the base of the peak. It’s an oddly shaped lake at an elevation of 9,600 feet.
Chris led the way around the wooded west shore and through the open meadow filled with soft brown grass.
Finding our place for the afternoon, we sat against a rock and planned an upcoming camping trip. We talked about our future, reminisced about past travels, and ate lunch. We napped and explored the area all afternoon until, thinking about Pepper and Ginger—our dogs alone at home, we decided to call it a day.
On the way home we stopped at the Tuolumne Meadows store and bought soft serve cones to eat in the car. A sweet ending to a superb day.
Hiking Yosemite and Beyond 
Another great blog. As always, I enjoyed the narration and the pictures. I tried to find more information about the brilliant red ground cover. I was able to find several reference to it on the Internet, but it was never named anything except “brilliant red ground cover”.
Dad
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Thanks, Dad. 🙂
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Great photos! Looks like a nice hike, one of my favorites.
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Thanks for commenting. I think my favorite is Cathedral Lake, but this is an easier hike.
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