My first trip to Ancient Lakes! We started at the Lower Ancient Lakes Trailhead. We stayed just one night at the smaller round lake just south of the main Ancient Lake.
The trail is in good shape. There are lots of forks coming from the Lower Trailhead so wise to have a map of the area on GPS. On this Monday night, only 3-4 other groups were also camping, though we did see several day-hikers and equestrians.
There are lots of spots to camp but it's a little trickier to find spots that are leave-no-trace friendly. There are lots of places it's clear people have camped that are fully in grass/wildflower areas. We found a spot with a fire ring. We didn't use it but the area was clearly used often and had a great view of the main waterfall.
Some wildflowers were blooming, especially higher up. We saw lots of animals, including geese, ducks and many other bird, a snake (not rattlesnake), and heard owls and lots of coyotes.
We each carried a little over 4 L of water, which ended up being far more than we needed. Note that we didn't do breakfast (opting to hike out and get a diner breakfast) and it was cool weather.
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