We went on an overnight trip to Ropi Lake in Desolation Wilderness on Jun. 7th 2025.
Overnight camping in Desolation Wilderness requires a permit. The wilderness is divided into 45 zones - you can camp in any zone, but must spend the first night in the zone where your permit is valid. Permits for some zones are apparently very popular and are booked out months in advance. Bringing a 4-year-old on a backpacking trip, we wanted to keep the hike short. The trail to Ropi Lake is 3 miles one way. The Desolation Wilderness facebook group, and the AllTrails page for Ropi Lake, offered useful information about the trail conditions. Seeing that the trail was mostly snow-free, we decided to go for it.
We left the Bay Area at noon and stopped at KP International, a wonderful grocery store in Rancho Cordova, for lunch and to stock up for dinner. Having followed the ultralight backpacking philosophy religiously in the 2010s, I now move away from the Mountain House and freeze-dried meals. We picked up some frozen fish cakes, and wait for it, HaiDiLao self-heating hot pot. We drove another hour and a half on US50 to the Pyramid Peak trailhead, and started our hike at 4.
According to Alltrails, the route follows the Pyramid Creek all the way to Ropi Lake. The trail was easy to follow for the first mile. After entering the wilderness boundary, the trail got fainter. We started scrambling on granite boulders, which gradually became larger and more challenging. It was a bit tricky to see the path climbing up. At certain point we decided that it would be better to continue further away from the creek, so as not to get stuck in a unclimbable section. It added a bit of distance, but the route was less technical. We reached the top of the waterfall at around 7:30, and started looking for a campsite. Nested in the trees, Avalanche Lake and Pitt Lake weren't the most appealing to us, so we kept going. We finally arrived at Ropi Lake at 8, and quickly set up camp. Mosquitoes were a slight nuisance at dusk in early June, but not too bad. We hurriedly cooked the fish cakes and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Ropi Lake. Not in a hurry, we took our time to enjoy the scenery and have breakfast before packing up camp. The HaiDiLao hot pot was fine, a bit greasy but it was nice to have something warm and spicy in the morning. Perhaps attracted by the smell, an over-friendly chipmunk visited our campsite. Though fun at the beginning, its persistence made us a bit uncomfortable.
The hike back felt easier. We met many day-trippers and observed how they navigated the boulder fields. Following their routes, we decided to stick close to the creek. Despite a few steep sections, we made it down without much trouble.
