Thompson Lake via Granite Creek Trail — Friday, Jul. 25, 2025

As a previous trip reporter mentioned, this hike description (which is great!) and stats do not match up with the driving directions and pin.

We started this trail from the Granite Creek Trailhead (following the driving directions/pin) and it works out to roughly 10.8 miles and 4095’ according to my CalTopo map.

Parking on a late Friday morning was a breeze, probably no more than 8 cars in the lot. Bathrooms are still “temporarily” closed but trash cans are available.

The trail climbs pretty steadily the entire time and is in fairly good shape aside from a bit of brush and a few blowdowns closer to the lake. There are TONS of ripe berries right now which was an absolute joy. Some of the best thimbleberries I’ve ever had along with red huckleberries, trailing blackberries, black raspberries, salmonberries, and blueberries.

Trail use seems to peter out significantly after turning off for Thompson Lake. Our group was one of only two groups camping overnight at the lake (impressive solitude for a summer weekend trip off of I-90!) We kept right at the fork by the lake and there is an excellent campsite past the boulder field, which was plenty big enough for our group of 5 humans + 2 dogs.

Mosquitos were present but manageable. I came away with only a handful of bites.