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Stanislaus National Forest

Near: Bear ValleyCa (Weather)
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Difficulty: Challenging Trail
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Trail Description There are many trails in the Stanislaus National Forest. Many challenging ones in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness area. Acess to the trail heads are right of the highway. You will find many beautiful high sierra meadows, streams, rigorous granite crossings and you may even hear a cow bell or two or three or more! Bring a camera with lots of film alot of the trails go up to the highest peaks and you can see everywhere from Lake Tahoe down to the Valley and over to the Emigrant Wilderness area as well as into Nevada. Make sure your horse is well condition for this area as the altitude is very high, from 5,000-9,980 ft. elev. , well shod, and if you plan to overnight along the trail bring a bag of grain for a pic me upper for your compadre! Oh and also to remember to get a wilderness permit for overnight travels.
Best Time to Visit early June-mid Sept. (depends on the snow melt year to year)
Times to Avoid weekends are really busy with backpackers
Campground No facilities at the places where horse people camp, basically at the trail heads. Highland Lakes has 6 horse camping spots.
Human Facilities: Horse Facilities: Operated by: Contact: Additional Information
primitive USFS
(209) 795-1381
Calaveras Ranger District
P.O. Box 500
Hathaway Pines, Ca., Ca 95232
Directions From the bay area travel to Hwy 4 and follow it all the way up into Angels Camp, and continue on Hwy 4 up to Bear Valley and Lake Alpine. Trail heads are marked well, to find them contact the Calaveras Ranger District or see United States Forest Service web site.
This information was provided by on 7/15/2003 6:14:21 PM

Notes on Difficulty Rating:  
 Easy
(Gently sloping or level terrain; trails are groomed or wide open; shallow or no creek crossings. ) 
 More Difficult (Moderate hills over consistent surface; possibly some narrow trails and short steeper slopes) 
 Rigorous (Easy to More Difficult for rider but physically challenging for horse such as on a level surface through deep sand) 
 Challenging (Possible rocky, uneven surface, steep slopes, uncleared trails, faster flowing streams and other obstacles that lead to more difficult riding for rider and horse)