June 13, 2026
This was my last of several hikes during a long camping trip along Skyline Drive. My brother-in-law, Mark, had joined me on the last three but he stayed behind at camp for this one and I went solo. I had hiked the length of the North Fork of Lake Canyon two years earlier on back-to-back trips: one from Skyline Drive to the lake, and then from Huntington Reservoir to the lake on the following day. On this day I set out to hike the full length of the South Fork of Lake Canyon to Skyline Drive, and visit Towhead, the name of the highest point on the ridge between the north and south forks. I parked on the south side of Lake Canyon and hiked along an ATV trail for a very short distance before it veered off to the south and then east, while I continued west on an old, closed logging road. For the first mile and a half the scenery was only mediocre–about what you’d expect from a logging road through the forest in the bottom of a canyon. 🙂
The road ended but beyond it there was still a discernible game trail. As I approached the spot where the trail crosses the creek I heard some crashing down in the trees. On the other side of the creek I could see some elk that I’d spooked, including a cute baby with spots. That’s the first elk calf I’ve seen that was that young, and I didn’t know they had spots like fawns. Beyond the creek crossing the forest opened up and I had some moderately steep climbing along a smaller drainage before things leveled out.
When the terrain did level out, the upper basin was wide open and grassy, with a few rocky areas. I passed a pond and hiked through a marshy area, and then began the steep climb up to Skyline Drive. I was worried it would get too steep or brushy, as I wasn’t able to identify any game trails between the basin and the ridge in this area in the sat imagery, but the route I’d chosen worked well enough.
I reached the top and went out of my way slightly–only about a third of a mile total–to find a geocache. Then I went back the other direction, to the north, toward Towhead. First I walked the road and then followed a faint game trail and then no trail at all. I reached Towhead and decided it was an ideal and scenic spot for lunch. I walked around and gathered a few large flat rocks and made a little bench to sit on while I ate and enjoyed the view.
After eating and relaxing for a few, I dropped down from Towhead along the ridge dividing the forks of Lake Canyon. I was surprised to see an igneous dike nearly parallel to the ridge! And even more interesting is that the trail I was following cuts right down along the basalt layer between two walls of baked sandstone. Since then I’ve looked at all the historical imagery in Google Earth and can’t even make out this small section of the dike, let alone find any additional places where it crops out on the surface. I continued descending the ridge until I found a trail leading south back into the South Fork. It was a decent trail, and obviously also used by other people judging by the aspen carvings, although none were terribly interesting enough to even take photos of. I saw one remarkable aspen tree, which looked like it had fallen but then part of it curved and grew upward. There was more trunk lying on the ground than was growing vertically, but the vertical part looked pretty healthy.
I followed the base of the ridge for a while, passing a few springs erupting from its base, before I regained my ascent trail. From there I made quick work of the hike back to the truck. My GPS logged exactly eight miles, and 1,600′ of elevation gain. I picked this canyon to hike in because I eventually want to hike all of the named canyons between Miller Flat Road and Skyline Drive, and with this one checked off my list there are only a few remaining!
Photo Gallery: South Fork of Lake Canyon to Towhead
GPS Track: [KMZ] [GPX]