Monte Vista and New York Creek Trail - 10/26/2025

Since the weather was was cooler with some sprinkling rain, we chose to hike in Folsom along the Monet Vista trail, and then jump on the New York Creek trail and loop around Browns Ravine Trail as well. 

It was cloudy and dark when we arrived. The parking lot was nearly full, which seemed unusually for a rainy day. Sue talked to a person that was set up with chairs and coolers behind an open truck, asking what was happening. She was told that there was a practice race and the truck was a refreshment station. So, we expected to see runners along the way.
 

The air fresh and smelled of rain, but we were dry and the path was not very muddy. We saw some wild turkeys within the first few steps. They seemed unconcerned with us.

The trail was wide with interesting vegetation. 

The trail opened up and we could see the south fork of Folsom Lake in the.distance.

There were interesting colors in contrast to the grey skies above. We also saw some strange mushrooms growing next to the path. 

We walked closer to the lake, and then turned into a foresty area. And it began to rain lightly.

There was quite a bit of horse manure right on the trial, as well as other animal scat. We also saw few runners.

We came to the New York Creek and there was a great bridge over it, that put us on another trail. We explored that for about a mile before turning around and following our original plan. 

Retracing our steps, we watched as the sky became darker. We encounter a lot more runners upon the return route. 

We turned onto a different path that led to a loop on the other side of the lake. We saw a helicopter flying around as though they were searching for something. 

Then we followed a different path back to the parking lot. The hike was just under 8 miles and the elevation gain was round 850 feet. We ate our sandwiches in the parking lot.

Summit Lake via Donner Rim Trail - 10/19/2025

 

Since the weather took a turn for the better, we decided to try one last hike in the Sierras (it snowed during the week, but the temperature went back up). Our destination: Summit Lake, which is just off the Donner Lake Rim Trail. 

It was 9am when we hit the trail - ours was the first car in the small, still under construction parking lot. The morning light was lovely and the air was only moderately cool.

Along the trail, we crossed through rocky terrain that opened up to beautiful, scenic views. We could hear the 80 freeway nearby most of the time.

The air was breezy, but the sky was clear and the sun was warm. Then we briefly entered a forested area and then back into the open.

We crossed several bridges over a creek.

I had a perfect moment listening to the music of the breeze in the leaves within a colorful, tunnel-like atmosphere.

We could see Donner Lake sparkling in the distance.

The trail ended at a dirt road where we continued toward Summit Lake. The freeway was never very far away.

We came across some snow in the areas where the sun doesn’t shine much.

Then we arrived at the lake - very lovely. We ate our sandwiches and enjoyed the serene landscape.

After eating, we turned around and retraced our steps.

We encountered people on bikes and other hikers. Everyone was very friendly. Several had dogs without leashes. We saw and heard quite a few birds too.

The light was different on the return trip, but just as nice.

More scenic views.

And then back to the parking lot - still under construction. The distance was 7.98 miles and around 1,400 elevation gain. Great hike!

Barrett Lake Jeep Trail - 10/12/2025

 

We drove up 50 just past Kyburz and took the turn for Wrights Lake. We parked in the usual lot (in the usual parking spot even) and took a new route. The Barratt Lake Jeep Trail is really a road with many obstacles such as large rocks, fallen trees, mud, dirt and steep hills. It’s an popular OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) road.

It was cold up in those mountains, 24 degrees Fahrenheit. We knew that it was last day for the road to be open, so we didn’t expect a lot of traffic. The parking lots around Wrights Lake were sparsely populated, we guessed they were mostly backpackers because there was frost on most of the vehicles. The first part of the path was going past Dark Lake, which was calm and serene. 

Then we reached the Barrett Lake Jeep Trail entrance and everything changed.

We had to watch our step among all the loose rocks while simultaneously listening for OHVs. I must say that parts of it were flat without obstacles.

As we maneuvered along, I found it difficult to believe that ANY vehicles could drive through some of this terrain.

We made it to a bridge built by the Hi-Landers 4WD Club over the Jones Fork Silver Creek. Very pretty views.

Then we had our first encounter with an OHV. There were two vehicles driving in tandem and they stopped to chat with us for a few minutes. Super friendly guys and not at all what I was expecting (to be honest, I thought they’d be annoyed that we were hiking on an OHV road, but I was wrong!).

After that, the terrain was basically the same and the path was uphill, downhill and difficult to navigate at times. 

We stopped to eat about a mile from lake and decided to turn around because it was so dusty and kind of difficult to move through on foot. In fact, I took a tumble on the hike back which left a gash in my leg that necessitated the medical kit. A lot of blood. 

On the return, we detoured to Beauty Lake for a change of scenery and terrain.

And then back to the parking lot. Another find day!