Twenty Lakes Basin outside of Yosemite National park is one of the most beautiful places in the Sierra. When the water taxi at Saddlebag Lake resort is running, it’s a no-brainer. With no water taxi, it’s another 1.3 miles each way. We decided we’d bite the bullet and hike the extra miles to see the bluest lakes in the area, Conness Lakes, and Greenstone Lake along the way.
The Hoover Wilderness just outside the east entrance of Yosemite National Park is one of our favorite areas in the Sierra. It has beautiful scenery, far less crowds than Yosemite, and it’s dog-friendly. We’ve explored many of the trails accessible via Saddlebag Lake Road, including: Shell & Fantail Lakes, Maul & Spuller Lakes, Gardisky Lake, and Twenty Lakes Basin.
It had been a few years since we’d been back in Twenty Lakes Basin; mostly due to the fact that the Saddlebag Lake Resort water taxi – which reduces the hike by 1.3 miles each way – had been running inconsistently due to COVID, staffing issues, and forest closures. This year, we had the itch to go back to Conness Lakes, so we decided to just bite the bullet and hike the length of the lake to reach the basin.
So on a somewhat smoky day due to fires near Yosemite Valley, we arrived and parked at the Saddlebag Lake Trailhead near the campground and set off on the west side of the lake.
The trail on the west side of the lake is extremely rocky. It cuts through a nearly continuous scree field from the dam to the other end of the lake. The trail is flat and isn’t too bad to walk along, but the rocks do get annoying after a while.
Eventually, just over a mile into the hike, the rocks are replaced with dirt and the scene becomes much greener. It was peak wildflower season in the high country and we noticed a ton of pink mountain heather and coral Indian paintbrush dotting the landscape.
The only downside to blooming wildflowers is that usually it means the mosquitos are out in full force, and it was no exception in Twenty Lakes Basin.
Greenstone Lake is just a short walk from Saddlebag Lake. We stopped for a moment to admire the lake and snap a few photos, but continued on quickly hoping there would be less mosquitos higher up.
The trail is very well defined as it passes by Greenstone Lake, but as the lake turns into a creek, the trail starts to peter out as it reaches some talus. After crossing the rock field, we then had to cross the creek. It was easy to rock hop across the water, even in early July (though it was a below average snow year).
The trail picks back up on the other side of the creek and starts to climb up towards Conness Lakes. The creek levels out for a short section – this is one of our favorite spots on the hike. There’s a waterfall above and North Peak towering in the background. We could chill at this spot for hours, but alas, it was mosquito city.
The trail climbs the hill to the right of the waterfall with a series of switchbacks leading to the Conness Lakes Basin. The views back towards Saddlebag and Greenstone Lakes from just above the waterfall are superb.
At the top of the hill, the terrain mellows out considerably and enters into an alpine wonderland. A wide open expanse of granite with Mt. Conness in the background greet you. This is definitely one of the easiest hikes in the Sierra to experience alpine mountain views like this.
In early July, even in a below average snow year, there was quite a bit of snow on the north face ridge leading up to Mt. Conness.
Conness Lakes are probably the most glacial blue lakes Twenty Lakes Basin, thanks to the Conness Glacier above. They are usually less busy than other lakes in the basin because they aren’t located on the area’s typical loop hike.
We picked a spot near the outlet to eat a snack and attempt to fish for a bit. We had caught some small Golden Trout out of this lake on previous trips, but had no such luck this time. We could see them swimming near the drop offs but they weren’t interested.
We chose to spend our extra time at the first Conness Lake fishing instead of trekking up to the other two lakes above. We’ll have to check out the fishing there some other time.
We started this hike a bit later in the day than usual, so after an hour or so at the lake, the smoke from the Yosemite fires was worsening, so we started our hike back to the car. The extra mile or so around Saddlebag does make the hike longer and slightly more annoying because that part of the trail is so rocky, but we highly recommend it, even when the shuttle isn’t running, to experience Twenty Lakes Basin.
