Desolation Wilderness
South Lake Tahoe / El Dorado County · near South Lake Tahoe · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Backcountry Skiing · Hiking
At a glance
- Vertical
- 2500
- Best season
- February–May · Best in March–April for consolidated snowpack and longer days
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 29 miles
- Elevation gain
- 4,000 ft
- Time needed
- multi-day
- Best season
- July–mid-September
Permits and booking
- Permit
- REQUIRED: Desolation Wilderness permit (free, self-register at trailhead for day use). Overnight: reservation permit through Recreation.gov, quota-based. Multiple entry points: Echo Lakes Rd (Hwy 50), Wrights Lake Rd, Glen Alpine Trailhead. Echo Summit Sno-Park: $5 day use.
- Permit required
- Yes
- How the permit works
- Overnight permits by camping zone via Recreation.gov, reservable up to 6 months ahead — you pick one of 45 destination zones based on your entry trailhead. Quota season runs the Friday before Memorial Day through Sept 30. Bear canister required; no campfires anywhere in the wilderness.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 3 of 5
What is here
- Features
- 130+ glacier-carved lakes · Granite basins & Lake Aloha · Mt. Tallac & Pyramid Peak · Easy access from Tahoe
Worth knowing
- Gear you must bring
- Beacon · Probe · Shovel · Skins · Navigation (essential — wilderness travel with no marked routes) · Helmet · Ice axe (for peak objectives) · Topo map + compass
- Gear worth bringing
- Overnight camping gear if multi-day · Rope · Airbag pack
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Guides, rentals and operators
- Guides
- International Alpine Guides · Blackbird Mountain Guides
Backcountry Skiing detail
- Directions note
- Common winter entry via Echo Summit / Echo Lakes — Sno-Park permit required
- Ates
- complex
- Tour types
- day-tour · multi-day · ski-mountaineering
- Summit
- 9983
- Approach
- Varies by trailhead: Echo Lakes (7 miles round trip to Lake Aloha) · Wrights Lake (multiple objectives) · Glen Alpine / Fallen Leaf Lake
- First timer with guide
- No
- Guide recommended
- Yes
- Avi zone
- Sierra Avalanche Center · sierraavalanchecenter.org
- Signature lines
- Pyramid Peak (9,983 ft) · Lake Aloha Basin Tour · Echo Peak / Echo Lakes Corridor
- Intl tip
- Echo Summit on Hwy 50 provides the most accessible Desolation Wilderness trailhead from South Lake Tahoe (20 minutes west) and Sacramento (1.5 hours). The Sno-Park at Echo Summit has plowed parking and is maintained by CalTrans throughout winter. Echo Lake's private summer resort is closed in winter, leaving the approach road quiet and the basin essentially yours.
Hiking detail
- Nights
- 2–4
- Resupply
- None needed. Bear canister required across the entire area (as of 2024).
- Intl tip
- Camping is prohibited at Lake Aloha itself (zone 33) to protect the fragile shoreline — plan to camp in an adjacent zone and day-hike in. For the least crowded scenery, drive the dirt road to Wrights Lake and enter from the west; the lakes there rival the east side with a fraction of the people.
The guide
Desolation Wilderness is 63,960 acres of High Sierra granite, frozen lakes, and backcountry terrain that receives no grooming, …
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Desolation Wilderness — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.85, -120.15