Rock Creek Lake in Inyo County California

During our annual trip to Mammoth Lakes, California we visited the scenic Rock Creek Lake which is located high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In researching this I found there are quite a few creeks named Rock Creek one of which is even located not too far away, just a bit east, close to Fresno. The Rock Creek Lake in this blog post is south of Mammoth Lakes. At the town of Toms Place turn off highway 395 going east on Rock Creek Road. The lake is at an elevation of about 9600 feet so the drive is pretty much uphill all of the way.

We parked our car in one of the parking lots and this panorama was our first view of the lake.

Some passersby told us there was a nice waterfall just a short distance away so we decided to check it out. We found this beautiful scene of water cascading over rocks.

A little closer view in the sun.

I couldn’t resist taking this picture of someone taking a picture of someone taking a picture of Rock Creek.

The sun really lit up these pine needles.

This is near where Rock Creek flows into Rock Creek Lake.

When we got back to the lake there was more sun.

I thought the clump of pine trees on the left was interesting.

If you look closely there is a small boat in the lake.

All tough it does not look like it there is a path near the water which goes around the lake.

The lake is popular for fishing as these people on the shore are doing. We asked a number of people if they had any luck and the only ones who did were the boaters.

A view back toward where the earlier lake pictures were taken from.

This is looking in the direction of the outlet of the lake. Even though the trail goes all of the way around the lake we turned around here.

Returning to near where we parked there is a picnic area with a large stump from a tree.

This is a nice place to rest after hiking. The member of our party with the walking sticks had turned 100 years old a couple weeks before this hike. Pretty amazing that he is still able to hike in the mountains. The others with him include his daughter, son and their spouses.

More Information:

Rock Creek Wikipedia article