Dorothy Lake Trip Overview
My wife and I have slowly been building up our adventures with our newest addition to our family. We started with day hikes and worked our way up to some longer hikes in Yosemite National Park at 2 month old. Check out our hiking with an infant tips.
After mastering day hikes with our little one we wanted to go camping as a family. Since my wife became pregnant and gave birth it had been over a year since we had done any backpacking together and we were itching to get back and spend a night out under the stars! Luckily for us we have close friends who have two young daughters and a newborn 2 weeks younger than our little guy, and they have lots of experience camping with their little ones! We decided to do a group family backpacking trip up to Dorothy Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. This was a great half year birthday trip for our little guy!
Dorothy lake was an absolute hidden gem of a back country camping spot. It was not too far or challenging to hike to, and we were able to secure permits over the busy labor day weekend!
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Dorothy Lake Trail Map
This was a funny trip for me because I am used to planning every single detail, but on this occasion my buddy booked all the permits and to be honest I didn't even really know where we were heading to a couple weeks before we headed out.
Our general plan was to pick a camping spot that didn't have too much elevation gain to get to our campsite but still was above 9k ft so that it would not be too hot to camp with infants. My buddy found Dorothy Lake and it was perfect!
The hike starts out at Rock Creek Lake Campgrounds and winds up to Dorothy Lake in under 3 miles with less then 1k ft in elevation gain. After setting up camp there are some great day hikes that can take you up to over 11k ft in elevation!
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On our trip up to Dorothy Lake we set up camp near Dorthy then the next morning left camp with light packs and hiked up towards Tamarack Lakes. The trail up to Tamarack lakes is 3.41 miles one way with about 1,300 ft of elevation gain.
For day one the terrain profile below outlines two climbing sections up to Dorothy Lake. The first is the steepest with a more gradual one to finish off the hike at the lake.
Day 2 was our day hike from camp up towards Tamarack Lakes. This hike was a bit steeper and brought us up to 11,500ft in elevation. We had much lighter packs for this day trip. Here is day 2 terrain profile below:
You can view the Dorothy Lake Trail map and download it as well from Caltopo.
Dorothy Lake Hiking Gear List
Our hiking gear for this trip was a bit on the heavy side for a two night trip. I took my usual camera gear in addition to my basics for camping but we were also camping with a 6 month old. I think my wife packed about a pound of toys which is also not reflected in our "Official" gear list. We packed in about 40 pounds each including all our water, food, snacks, diapers etc.
You can browse and sort through both our packs on Don't Forget The Spoon here.
Packing for this trip was a new challenge for us. Since this was our first time backpacking with our kiddo. We have taken him on a ton of day hikes but not an overnight backpacking trip. Diapers were our big new logistical planning challenge. On top of packing enough diapers for the trip we did need bear canisters so we had to think through what and where to put the used diapers. Basically we took a Bear Vault 500 for all our food, then my wife took a smaller Bear Vault 450 to pack out the dirty diapers.... For someone who hates carrying a Bear Canister it was not great to carry two on a two night trip đ .
For the Diaper logistics I did consider buying cloth diapers and washing them with soap and boiling water since we were by a lake and water wouldn't be an issue. After discussing that idea with my wife, she rightly convinced me otherwise since we were only out for 2 nights. If you have any infant diaper backpacking tips please share in the comments!
Dorothy Lake Trip Report
Driving up from San Diego to the Eastern Sierra can be a long drive especially on a holiday weekend and traveling with an infant. My wife and I decided to break the drive up north into 2 days to make it easier on our little guy.
If you have kids, you know that getting anywhere on time is now a thing of the past. So when you go on a camping trip with 4 adults and 4 kids under the age of 7, you know this story is not going to start on time. Since cell service can always be a bit finicky at any trail heads we planned to meet up with our friends in the town of Bishop just south of the Rock Creek Lake Trailhead we would start our hike at. We all met at Looney Bean and had a late lunch and caffeine before driving to the trail head. If you are ever stopping through Bishop don't miss Looney Bean!
When we got up to Rock Creek Lake the parking for the trail head was extremely limited. Rock Creek Lake looked absolutely beautiful and there were a lot of car camping spots around the lake. Since it was a holiday weekend every spot and campsite was full, and I felt extremely lucky that we were able to find two parking spots for each of our families. There were a few other parking lots around the lake you could probably park at but would add a little extra distance to your hike. Here is a Google Maps pin to this location as well.
I circled the limited Parking in yellow and put a yellow star on the trailhead for reference:
As I hinted to earlier we started off pretty late, and were racing the sun a little to get to camp and set up our tent before it got dark.
Most of the climbing was at the start when our legs were fresh, the trail seemed fairly easy despite the added weight of the baby gear. Some of the "easiness" may have been attributed to being back on the trail backpacking for the first time in over a year! The excitement was real for all of us!
Starting late on the trail isn't all bad. Since we started out a bit late, we had a good chunk of our hike during golden hour and me and my camera were absolutely loving the light on the trail!
We finished the first climbing section of day one in just under 40 minutes. Not bad for 4 adults, 2 infants and 2 other kids under 7!
As the trail leveled out, we were greeted by some amazing alpine meadows, with the beautiful soft glow of the slowly setting sun on our late afternoon adventure. The alpine meadows were stunning in the foreground of the peaks all around us!
On the hike up to Dorothy Lake we took one good packs off stop for snakes and to rest up our legs before the final short push to the lake. We were still racing the setting sun. Our goal was to set up tents and get warm clothes on the kiddos before it got dark.
I won't lie, getting last minute camping reservations for a holiday weekend, I didn't have high expectations for the trail or our campsite. I honestly was just excited to get out back on the trail and go backpacking after more than a year off. I love epic views, but was more excited to see the smile and excitement on my kiddos face on his first backpacking trip.
To my surprise, the hike up to Dorothy Lake was absolutely beautiful and Dorothy Lake itself was stunning! I couldn't have asked for a better place to be with family and friends. We almost had the entire lake to ourselves and the views watching the sun set and the shadows dance on the peaks around us was exactly what I needed!
In the morning we ate a nice hot breakfast, and soaked our feet in the cool lake, while also prepping light packs to explore the surrounding terrain. We decided to hike up towards Tamaracks Lake. This hike would be more distance and elevation then our first day but we would also just be carrying day packs and infants this time around.
In total our day hike up toward Tamaracks Lake would be 5.21 miles and 1,273 ft of elevation gain. We basically ended up stopping just before the lakes.
The start of the hike from Dorothy Lake to Tamaracks Lake is fairly flat for the first mile or so then gradually begins to get steeper. The flat sections bring you through some more alpine meadows which were stunning and we even got to see a bunch of small frogs in the meadows!
About a mile and half in the climbing begins to get steeper and a bit more of a challenge. You begin to rise up out of the valley and above the tree line. The final climb right before the lakes is the most steep but the meadow at the start of this section is awesome, and the views as you climb up this last rocky section are incredible.
As we all tiredly climbed this last section we had to take a break off trail as a train of mules and horses were coming down carrying passengers. This group also was camping at the lake on the opposite side. It was fun to watch their faces when they saw the little kids all hiking on their own as they rode horses and mules up and down the trail.
As we crested the last ridge we stopped for snacks and all enjoyed the views. We looked down at our last bit of trail headed towards the lake and decided to turn around instead of going all the way down to the lake's edge. The kids all did fantastic and the adults were tired as well. We decided we wanted to make it back to our "own lake" at camp and have time for the kids and adults to relax in the chill water. We didn't want to be racing the sun for a second night!
We did spend a nice long break at the ridge chowing down food and enjoying the views. The infants were happy to be out of their baby carriers and enjoyed spending some time playing with toys on our foam sleeping pads with us. It was so much fun watching my little ones wide eyes scan the barren landscape, and touch the granite rocks as he explored the wide open world around him!
The return trip was quicker and a welcome relief for our legs. Back at Lake Dorothy, we had plenty of time to cool off in the water, soak in the views, and share a hot meal. After his long journey in the carrier, our little one was thrilled to stretch out on the sleeping pad, happily playing with his toys in a space far grander than his bedroom back home.
