Convict Lake is a classic Mammoth Lakes area hike that’s scenic, easy, and family- and dog-friendly. I decided to take our puppy River on a quick hike around the lake while Cory was backpacking and enjoyed the views of lake and towering peaks of the Sherwins.
While Cory was on his annual Sierra backpacking trip, River and I kept ourselves busy with some hikes local to the Mammoth Lakes area. One of our go-to’s on weekday mornings is the loop hike around Convict Lake. It’s an easy, dog-friendly hike at a popular, picturesque place with a colorful history.
Convict Lake is named for a shootout that took place in September 1871 between escaped convicts from a nearby Nevada prison and a sheriff’s posse. Mount Morrison and Mono Jim Peak, which tower above the south end of the lake, are named after two men from the posse who perished during the event.
We wouldn’t do this hike on the weekends as it would be too busy for us (and likely with lots of horse rides, which River isn’t fond of coming across on the trail), but on a summer weekday morning, it’s a nice hike to start the day with.
We parked on the south east side of the lake in one the marked spots along Convict Lake Road. We normally do the hike in a counter clockwise direction to get the exposed part of the hike out of the way before it gets too warm.
Along the trail there are lots of use trails down to the lake shore. Here’s River enjoying the views at one of them!
As we hiked along the north side of the lake we had a great view of the surrounding mountain peaks, including Mount Morrison, Bloody Mountain, and Laurel Mountain.
Please enjoy the following photos of my beautiful puppy on the trail with the aforementioned mountains in the background:
This side of the trail is completely exposed with no trees for shade, so we took lots of breaks along the way – not because it was tough walking (there’s pretty much no elevation gain) but because it was so hot and we needed water breaks to keep hydrated.
Here’s another cute pup pic of River cooling off:
I think this particular day was a Wednesday, so it was a relatively slow morning compared to the weekends. Then I’m sure Convict is bustling with people swimming, paddle boarding, boating, hiking, horseback riding, and fishing (we’ve caught some stocker fish from this lake many many years ago).
Halfway through the hike there’s finally some reprieve from the sun. There’s a trail sign marking the split from the loop trail to Mildred and Dorothy Lakes located several miles into the Convict backcountry.
This end of the lake has some larger beach areas. River and I walked over to one of them and I let her splash around in the water a bit to cool off.
The last half of the hike has many more shady trees, which makes for a much more pleasant hike, especially as the day gets warmer.
At the end of the lake there’s a boardwalk that runs over the creek and helps protect the vegetation. Earlier in the season there would be lots of water from run off under the boardwalk.
This side of the hike is a bit hillier than the opposite side, but has plenty of trees – including some aspen! – to keep cool. We’ve never done this hike in the fall but I’m sure it would be beautiful!
Whenever we do this hike this side of the lake usually has many more people and pups as it’s closer to the trailhead by the parking lot where you would start if you did the hike clockwise.
The hike usually takes us around an hour to do and we like to finish up in time to get back to our family’s condo in Mammoth for lunch! This hike is River-approved.
