Twenty Lakes Basin (Saddlebag Lake)
Saddlebag Lake, Tioga area · near Lee Vining · Eastern Sierra
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 8 miles
- Elevation gain
- 1,000 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- July–October · Snow lingers late; whole area closed when Tioga Pass Rd closes (~Nov–late May)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- None for day hikes (Inyo NF / Hoover Wilderness). A summer water taxi across Saddlebag Lake shaves ~2 mi. Leashed dogs OK here (flips vs adjacent Yosemite). Highest drive-to trailhead in California (~10,087 ft).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- A dozen alpine lakes · Alpine tundra & wildflowers · Water-taxi option · North Peak & Mt Conness backdrop
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Because you begin above 10,000 ft, altitude hits hard — hydrate, go slow, and don't attempt this on your first day off the plane.
The guide
From the country's highest trailhead you loop through a compact basin of a dozen alpine lakes below the crags of North Peak and…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Twenty Lakes Basin (Saddlebag Lake) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.9655, -119.2725