Summary
One of the best camping locations I have ever had and a trail in great shape. Had a great time swimming at the lake and watching sunset/sunrise. But, while the scenery is great, don’t expect solitude at Spectacle.
Road/Parking
I drove a low clearance car, but other than watching out for some larger rocks on the road, it was smooth sailing. I arrived Friday morning before Labor Day around 8:10 AM and the parking lot was about 75% full, the bathroom had no toilet paper.
Trail
Like others have said, the trail is very gentle and cruisy for the first 5 miles or so, my only concern were the heavy pinecones saturated with sap that squirrels were chewing free from the trees above possibly landing on me! For the first 3 or 4 miles, I could constantly hear these being loosed from the trees and thumping onto the ground. There were some logs across Lema Creek just to the left of the trail I was able to use without getting my feet wet, but they weren’t very wide, so if I didn’t have my trekking poles, I most likely would have taken my shoes off and crossed through the water. Strongly suggest getting water at Lema before continuing as the trail shortly turns into exposed switchbacks where the sun really beats you down on a hot day. I also grabbed water at Delate Creek Falls, there is easy access below the bridge if you go left of the bridge and a nice place to sit in the shade. The only other difficulty was the trail down to the lake which I had to use my hands on a couple times to get over boulders and many spur trails that can lead you in the wrong direction.
Camp
There are trails that run every which direction, so I did my best at exploring my options for camp and ended up picking a spot towards the end of the “peninsula” in the trees that overlooked a large rock. I was a little concerned about getting stakes into the ground with how rocky it looked, but had no issues getting my trekking pole tent setup. The spot also had easy access to the lake allowing me to experience the best view I have ever had while swimming and to grab water. The views from camp are outstanding. There were also tons of blueberries all around camp which made for a great snack. The main negative is that you won’t get much privacy or silence here as it is so popular. When I returned from my swim, a couple had setup their tent literally 8 feet from mine and there were noisy groups that were “inland” of my site that I could hear constantly throughout the evening. I also had to cleanup a bunch of TP that was strewn around the site from prior visitors. Starting Friday paid off as I passed a constant stream of backpackers heading up on Saturday on my way back to the car, not sure where they all ended up staying because I don’t think there were enough sites at Pete/Spectacle for that amount of campers. All in all, I will definitely plan on going back someday.
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