Another Saturday morning, another amazing hike. My husband had this one on his radar, and we knew going into it this was going to be a tough one, and it ended up being notable for several reasons.

We’d hiked in the Virginia Lakes area a few years ago, but this hike from Virginia Lakes to Summit Lake would entail over 3,000 ft of elevation gain, and we’d be hiking up and over 11,000 ft elevation.

We are not regularly hiking above 11,000 ft, so that in and of itself was notable for this hike. But there were also other memorable things.

The drive down picturesque Hwy 395 from Tahoe to Virginia Lakes is about 2.5 hours. At around noon, we arrived at the trailhead in Hoover Wilderness, which is just on the outskirts of the Yosemite National Park boundary.

The parking area was jam-packed with hikers, campers, and fishermen, so we had to turn around, backtrack, and park a little ways down the gravel road, inching off to the side as much as possible in a slightly wider spot. Then we donned our hiking gear, walked back to the trailhead, and started making our way up.

Virginia Lakes Trailhead.
Hoover Wilderness.
The trail along Blue Lake, above Virginia Lakes.
Blue Lake.
Hiking through a pile of rocks above Blue Lake.

More views of Blue Lake.

Blue Lake.
Blue Lake.

Then the iconic miner’s cabin that has weathered many a Sierra winter.

Around the trail bend from the cabin is Cooney Lake.

Cooney Lake.
Cooney Lake.
Cooney Lake.
Looking out over Cooney Lake.

First water crossing of the hike.

Stepping stones across the running creek.

Then the series of Frog Lakes.

Frog Lake.
Frog Lake.

This entire hike had just awesome geologic landscapes and features, with varying types and colors of rock, and the higher we climbed, the more interesting it got.

Rocks and geologic formations along the trail.

My introverted husband always seems to make friends along the trail.

We continued ascending, enjoying the beauty of the rough, rocky landscape. Overall, the trail was pretty quiet, which is probably why we faintly heard something up ahead. Then, one of the coolest things we’ve encountered on a trail was this cowboy on his horse leading pack mules down the trail.

Pretty neat to encounter this on a trail!

Shortly after this point, the trail got rockier, rougher, and a bit steeper and turned into a series of switchbacks to the top.

And we even spotted some snow.

Snow along the trail to Summit Lake.
Rocky uphill climb to the summit.
Rocky trail up to Summit Pass.

Looking back from where we came, the views as we approached Summit Pass were so unique – the bright blue lakes amongst the pockets of green trees all surrounded by the colorful rocks.

Looking back at Teapot Lake, Frog Lakes, and Dunderberg Peak.
Hiking up the switchbacks to Summit Pass with Teapot Lake and Frog Lakes in the background.

The wind was barreling over the ridge. Finally reaching the top of Summit Pass, my watch read 11,095 ft. Whew. Psychologically, I was tricked, though. Most of the time, a summit such as this was likely to be the destination for our hike, but today, we’d be hiking up to the pass, then descending down to the lake destination, and then ascending back up to the pass, and finally, back down to the trailhead.

We stopped briefly to take a few photos of the scenery from the top and then started the descent to Summit Lake. It isn’t very often our hikes take us above 11,000 ft, so that was exciting.

The varied geology was just incredible.

Views from Summit Pass.
The descending trail from Summit Pass.

As we battled the wind gusts while cresting and descending Summit Pass, I noticed I couple of wayward children scurrying up the trail towards us – wearing helmets. I kind of wondered what the deal was with that. Not long after, I spotted their mom and she was not wearing a helmet. Needless to say, I was a bit perplexed.

Until we got down toward this grove of trees, that is. And hiding there in the shade were at least four riding horses.

Oh! Now, the helmets on the kids made sense. This little family was traveling the trail via horseback! So, this was yet another memorable encounter for us on this trail. We have seen equestrian riders on trails from time to time, but it’s still always a treat.

We rounded around the grove of trees on the rocky terrain and soon could hear water.

And then, Summit Lake came into view, along with yet more spectacular geologic landscape.

And it became obvious how much more descending and distance we still had to cover to get to our destination.

Summit Lake, our destination, in the background.
More switchbacks and rocky terrain with a beautiful mountainous backdrop.

While we were carefully navigating down the rocky switchbacks, a man was hiking up. When we met him, we greeted him and started chatting a bit, as he was eager for a break on his ascent. He told us he was from Toronto and that he and a long-time family friend from California had spent the past several days in Yosemite and were just now hiking back out. He then asked us if we saw the team of pack mules on the trail. We chuckled and said yes. Those were the pack mules he and his buddy used for their multi-day excursion in Yosemite.

Before parting, we suggested he add a stop in Tahoe before he leaves for Canada. He motioned down the trail and said it would be up to his friend. When we met up with his friend, who was much older and was, let’s just say, clearly not enjoying that section of the trail, he scoffed at us between sips of breath when we mentioned stopping in Tahoe. I thought it was a shame for his friend to be that close and not at least see Tahoe. 🤷‍♀️

Striped rock formation along the trail to Summit Lake.
Looking across the “valley” to the mountains.
Summit Lake.
Flowers tucked in the rocks at the trail’s water crossing.

And more snow along the trail.

A rocky descent with snow in the background.
Switchbacks and snow.

We ended up seeing four yellow-bellied marmots on this hike. This was the first one.

As we continued the descent, some parts of the terrain got slightly green and lush. I was especially enjoying the rushing creek paralleling the trail.

Flowing creek along the trail.

And all of a sudden, this hike started to remind me of one of my all-time favorite hikes, Little Lakes Valley.

Wildflowers next to the creek.
Lush green surrounding the creek.
Asters along the creek.
Beautiful creek view.
Such an oasis.
On top of the creek’s cascades.
Cascades next to the trail.
Flowing creek casades.
Trailside creek.

Then we reached another rocky series of switchbacks overlooking Hoover Lakes.

Looking out at Hoover Lakes from the switchbacks.
Hoover Lakes.

At the bottom of these switchbacks was our sign to confirm our route.

Trail signage.

Every time I see a sign like this, my head goes here:

The directional scarecrow.

Once we got through the rocky switchbacks, the terrain turned back to lush green and we came upon another couple of water crossings.

Stick-bridge at water crossing.
Water crossing stick-bridge.

And, finally, after what felt like a long time since we’d been at Summit Pass, even though it had only been about three hours, we reached Summit Lake.

Summit Lake.
Summit Lake.
Summit Lake.
Summit Lake.

It was incredibly windy at the lake, but we wandered around the grassy shore for a bit, taking photos and taking it in, and then we tried to find a spot out of the wind to sit for a few minutes and have snacks before climbing up and back out of there.

Summit Lake.
Looking back up at Summit Pass.

This is where we will be hiking back up to:

Looking at Summit Pass from Summit Lake.

We wound our way back up the rocky terrain to 11,000 ft. at Summit Pass.

Between the constant upward grind and the rough terrain, it was not an easy climb at this point in the hike, but the scenery kind of made up for it.

Climbing up steps.
Steep, rocky climb up to Summit Pass.
Made it to the top of Summit Pass for the second time.
View from the top of Summit Pass.

A second stop at Cooney Lake for a photo op.

Cooney Lake.

On our way back, we saw a couple more marmots and also a jackrabbit that hopped across the trail and up the hillside! We don’t often see jackrabbits on our hikes, so this was a real treat for me!

A camouflaged jackrabbit along the trail.

Even though this hike was less than 11 miles round trip, the rocky terrain and the “up then down, then back up and back down” profile of this hike with over 3,000 feet of elevation gain in the end felt pretty challenging. But I absolutely loved the scenery, the flowing, cascading creek and bright blue lakes, all set amongst the massive geologic formations that only got better as you climbed. It was a pretty amazing hike and worth the challenge.

Virginia Lakes to Summit Lake
Total Distance10.78 mi
Total Time5:50:10
Total Ascent3,123 ft
Max Elevation11,096 ft

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5 responses to “Virginia Lakes to Summit Lake Hike”

  1. Summit Lake was beautiful. Loved that it reminded you of Little Lakes Valley.

    1. With as amazed as I was by Little Lakes Valley, it was hard to fathom finding a similar hike. Between the two, the beauty was definitely similar, but this hike was definitely the harder “version.” 😉

  2. Mary Jo Schrader Avatar
    Mary Jo Schrader

    The photos of Summit Lake are just gorgeous! I can see why you wanted to press on even though it was a strenuous hike.
    Very cool coming across the cowboy and pack mules. I couldn’t make out what was said but it sure looked like he was on a mission. Glad you found out the story behind it.
    The striped colors in the rocks were unreal. I also loved the rushing creek and cascades.

    1. The cowboy asked the other hiker where she was headed and she said “Summit.” Then he warned about how windy it was over the top.

  3. […] weekend, we hiked up just above 11,000 ft. This weekend is my husband’s birthday, so we’re doing it up big by hiking up to almost […]

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