Ropi Lake
Camp Review
After searching quite a bit, we were able to find a fantastic campsite overlooking Ropi Lake while being far enough away from the water and other people.
There were about 5 other tents that I could see from our prime position. It was great that there were such few others.
The quiet was enhanced by the white noise of the waterfall that feeds Ropi Lake.
There was quite a bit of broken glass at multiple locations. This might be the reason why I won’t return to this lake in the future. I picked up as many pieces as I could, but it didn’t bode well for the rest of the lake.
The camping spot we did find was almost perfectly flat and without broken glass (unlike the first site we found).
The ground was perfectly soft—not too soft where the stakes would rip out. There were plenty of rocks around for us to drive the stakes or to hold them in place.
We did not see too many animals around. We spotted a squirrel and a duck, but nothing besides that.
There were a few bugs that came out in the evening, but they weren’t mosquitos and they weren’t annoying.
Hike Review
The hike was short and furious. It was only 3 miles long, but it gained 1500 feet of elevation, of which 1000 feet of it comes in a 1-mile section.
The hike was nice and cool since the trail is close to the waterfall. There was a nice breeze which cooled us down too.
The trail was faint during the 1-mile section described above when we started hiking up the waterfall. It was, however, really fun--there were nicely textured granite sections.
The trail described in Apple Maps was hard to see, but the one shown in Gaia GPS was bang-on.
We saw about a dozen people on the trail. Most were day hikers and the rest were backpackers. Halfway up the waterfall, we saw plenty of day hikers playing in the creek or sunbathing next to it.
The trailhead had running/potable water and clean bathrooms.
I’ve always seen this parking lot full when driving by, but blessedly, there were plenty of spots when we arrived around noon on this Saturday.
On the hike down, we spotted more broken glass which we did our best to pick up. I’m disappointed by how much broken glass there was on this trip!
What We Learned
I was able to follow the faint trail to Ropi Lake without issue. I think I’ve improved in this ability over the past few years. I was however, helped plenty of times by well-placed cairns.
I packed an extra mid-layer and it was great that I did as Cassie forgot hers. Unfortunately, we did not pack enough snacks. Next time it’d be nice to have cheddar cheese, salami, and crackers.
I packed an extra t-shirt and underwear as my pajamas and it was so nice to change into them after our pre-dinner swim.
Cassie slept in the warmest sleep system we have (0-degree bag) and she was a little warm during the 45-degree night. We’re going to have to plan a bit harder for our winter camping plans.
Cassie brought a beanie, but she didn’t use it as the down jacket has a built-in hoodie that she prefers instead.
I was able to use iOS 18’s satellite functionality to check on my messages at the lake where I did not have signal. What a time to be alive.
What Happened?
3.2 miles, 3 hrs 47 mins, 1562 ft of ascent
2.6 miles, 2 hrs 32 mins, 72 ft of ascent
I have wanted to either hike or backpack to Ropi Lake since 2011 when I saw this blog entry on a fellow adventurer’s blog. I had seen Horsetail Falls numerous times driving back from South Lake Tahoe and I thought it was so cool that the trail to Ropi Lake climbed up this iconic waterfall. Unfortunately, this hike never lined up for me as fires, storms, and other adventures steered me away from Ropi Lake.
When I found out earlier this year that Cassie had never been to Desolation Wilderness and that she would be game for hiking up this waterfall, I booked a wilderness camping permit on reservation.gov. I figured that the short hike would be perfect for Cassie since she’s new to backpacking and the trail was short enough that we could turn around if we weren’t feeling this hike for any reason.
Because I estimated that the hike would take 3 hours, we did not drive up to the Tahoe area on Friday night. Instead, we slept luxuriously at our home and drove up to Tahoe on Saturday morning.
We arrived at the Pyramid Creek Trail parking lot after a yummy lunch at In-N-Out Burger. We put on sunblock, put the parking pass that we received when we made our reservation on the dash and started hiking. We measured our pack weight (with food and water to be 17.8 lbs and 23.2 lbs for Cassie and me, respectively).
The first quarter mile was hot and steep. I quickly felt hot and a little nauseated, but soon the trail flattened out and I was feeling good again. We made good progress—in no time we were beneath Horsetail Falls looking at the steep terrain we would have to hike. We refilled our water bottles and continued.
The trail was not well marked and it was steep, but we made slow and steady progress as we chose to hike the steeper routes with more granite as we found that to be more fun than dirt trails. There was one 15-foot section that I thought was a bit suspect (if we tripped and fell we would have cheese grated on a featureless granite slab), but both of us made it through without any issues. The rest of it just took perseverance and we had that in spades.
At the top of the waterfall, we took a break where we dropped our packs, laid down on the slabs, and stretched our bodies out. We also ate some snacks (roasted chestnuts and peanut butter mochi) and drank lots of water.
When we started hiking, we passed by the pretty Avalanche Lake and saw a cute camping spot and wondered if we should just camp there. We would have if it weren’t for the fact that neither of us had been to Ropi Lake and our curiosity drove us forward.
When we arrived at Ropi Lake, we started hunting for the best available campsite but did not see anything that fit the bill at first. There was one site that was too close to the water that we almost took, but on a second glance, it had tiny bits of glass that we thought could cut our tent, so we kept moving.
On a separate finger, we found our perfect site where we pitched our tent and got our sleeping system ready to go. Only then did we change into our swimsuits and take to the lake. Unfortunately, the sun had already passed behind Pyramid Peak and it was a little chilly, so we just dunked ourselves quickly in the water as a baptism of sorts and changed into our warm pajamas with haste.
Our dinner was a freeze-dried meal, one was a Pasta Marinara from Peak Refuel and the other was Spaghetti from Mountain House. We both liked the spaghetti better as it had more veggies and the sauces tasted better, but we were impressed that the pasta marinara managed to fit 1000 calories into a single meal.
Afterward, we enjoyed the crisp autumn air while winding down for the night. Once in our tent, we talked and laughed as usual and soon went to bed.
The next morning, we woke to a beautiful sunrise and a cold tent. We quickly heated water for the oatmeal and milk tea we had brought—they worked wonders in warming our bodies. More importantly, they increased our already high morale. We then cleaned up our tent, made sure we did not leave anything behind and started hiking down.
The trail was a bit more treacherous on the way down, but we managed it well—I found the hiking on granite slabs to be super fun. But the going was slow as the terrain was steep. We took the same amount of time to get down to Ramona as it took us to hike up!
When we got to Ramona, we were feeling hot and hungry. We jumped into her as fast as we could and started driving towards a delicious (and filling) lunch.
