Sky Meadows is a stunning subalpine gem tucked away in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. This hike had never been on our radar pre-puppy, but now we highly recommend it as a great, rewarding family-friendly and dog-friendly hike!
Cory has been to Mammoth every summer since he was born and there are few hikes in the area he hasn’t done, but hiking to Sky Meadows was one of them. It was never a priority because it’s not a hike to fish, but our little River (our Aussie puppy) gets a little impatient while we fish, so this was a great length hike for her with a beautiful destination for us.
The trail to Sky Meadows starts on the Emerald Lake trail side of the Duck Pass parking area. The first 0.8 miles goes slightly up a little hill but flattens out as it approaches Emerald Lake: a small shallow lake with a few little feeder creeks.
Along the side of Emerald Lake, the trail splits with one route going up and over a ridge to the Duck Pass trail and the other one heading towards Gentian and Sky Meadows.
The trail to the right follows one of the quaint inlet creeks up to Gentian Meadows. It’s a beautiful stretch of trail because it’s right next to the water and the banks are usually lined with wildflowers.
The origin of the little creek is a spring in Gentian Meadow above. If you pay close attention you’ll notice a point at the bottom of the meadow where there is flowing water at the bottom of a steep hill, but there is clearly no water flowing above it.
At this point the trail traverses a steep hill side over to Cold Water Creek, one of two water sources for Lake Mary. Right before the last steep section up to Sky Meadows, Cold Water Creek tumbles over a 20 ft. waterfall – a nice surpise!
The final steep section leads to Sky Meadows: a fairly large, picturesque meadow with Cold Water Creek flowing through it and spectacular views of the Mammoth Crest. The steep, jagged (unnamed?) peak above the meadow is what makes this view.
Can’t believe it took us so long to do this quick hike to this subalpine gem in the Mammoth Lakes area. Had we done this earlier in the season, the meadow would likely have been loaded with wildflowers!
We even got River to settle down for a picture – it’s hard to keep an almost-one-year-old puppy still! You’ll start to see her in a lot more of our posts as we start to introduce her to longer hikes and fishing. It’ll be a learning process for her and us, but we’re confident she’ll one day be a great hiking and fishing buddy.
