2025 Tahoe National Forest - 5 Lakes Basin & Penner Lake

Dates: Friday, August 8th – Saturday, August 9th, 2025

Duration: 2 days, 1 nights; ~16.3 miles

Group Members: Nick McGuire, Nico Costanzo

Pack Weights: Nick ~42 lbs, Nico ~38 lbs

Notes: Warm weather forecast and no thunderstorms so didn’t bring tent rain fly’s or thermal bottoms which was a good call given how warm it was. Planned to be a 3-day, 2-night trip originally but dropped down to just 2-day given not a lot of great campsite options at Penner Lake and getting there mid-day, only ~2.5 hours from the trailhead.

Route Map Available!

Outbound Travel: Left Shingle Springs around 8AM and reached the Grouse Ridge Campground for a final bathroom stop around 10AM. The dirt road was definitely in poor condition, worse than prior years, and would have been tough for non-high clearance vehicles although we did see a couple hatchbacks. Reached the Grouse Ridge Trailhead parking lot just before 10:30AM – have to backtrack out of the campground and take the higher road out to the trailhead parking lot. Only a dozen vehicles or so parked there.

Day 1: (~5.8 miles) Grouse Ridge Trailhead to 5 Lakes Basin

Left the trailhead around 10:40AM and headed out towards Glacier Lake. Asolo boots self-destructed ¼ mile in so switched to my Keen sandals for the rest of the trip. The trail was easy to follow like last time and we reached Glacier Lake around 12:30PM. There were a few campsites setup in the area but only ran into a few people on the trail on the way out. After stopping for lunch for 20 minutes we proceeded North on the trail towards 5 Lakes Basin. We reached the lake at the base of the Sand Ridge trail junction and tried to cross at the narrow part on its mid-south end but the water was too high. There was one group camped out on the ridge on the east side. We backtracked out of the middle of the lake area and North to where the Sand Ridge trail junction is. We should have gone back south and crossed to the east on the south side of the lake but instead proceeded off trail along the west shore, around the north side and then cutover to the east (would have been shorter going on the south side like last time). Proceeded North-East off-trail towards the lake with the stone campground I’ve camped at previously. It looked like someone might be camping there but hard to tell so we went all the way there and confirmed there was unfortunately. Rather than going South-East like last time we went around the North end of the lake and then proceeded South-East towards the spot I’d camped at as a backup option 5 years ago on the North-West corner of the nearby lake.

We setup camp there by ~2PM, and it was just in time given less than an hour later a group of 6 came looking to camp at that spot (they ended up camping at the South end of the lake near where another couple were already setup). Swam and relaxed for a bit. Set up a bear hang before bed a little way to the south of our campsite again near where a very small tent spot is in a dirt patch. Went to bed at about 9PM. There was almost a full moon again so it wasn’t a great sky for viewing stars even with no clouds. It was quite warm throughout the night and morning (just wore a light thermal top and boxers; even socks and a beanie weren’t ever need). Would have been nice to had the foam pad underneath the inflatable pad – hard ground to sleep on there.

Day 2:  (~10.5 miles) 5 Lakes Basin to Penner Lake via Sand Ridge & back to Trailhead

Woke up around 7AM. Didn’t get the best sleep due to the hard ground, despite the new sleeping pad, and the moon was really bright. Made breakfast and broke down camp, heading out at around 8:40AM. Headed west over the hills and picked up the trail near the other nearby lakes and followed it over towards the south end of the lake near the Sand Ridge trail. It still wasn’t well marked or traveled in some places and forked a couple times but we were able to follow it most of the way to the south-east end of the lake at the base of the Sand Ridge trail. We hiked west along the south shore of the lake and part way up the west shore to pick up the Sand Ridge trail which we took all the way back until it intersected with the main trail leaving the trailhead. After following it back towards the trailhead for just a short way we got to the turnoff for the trail heading towards Sawmill Lake & Rock Lake. We followed this trail for a few miles, past Middle Lake (which you couldn’t really see still) until we got to Shotgun Lake around 11:45AM. Rather than take the long route with the newer switch backs near Upper Rock Lake we headed west off trail from Shotgun Lake towards Penner Lake like I’d done back in 2008. The terrain was a little steep but route-finding wasn’t too bad and we got to the trail just a short way from Penner and made it there by 12:45PM, saving quite a bit of time and mileage.

There were people camped in the spots I’d camped back in 2008 and 2020 in the north-east corner of the lake as well as most of the other spots along the East shore. We set our packs down nearby in a small, one tent spot along the lake and I went searching for a campsite further towards the middle of the lake area. There were a decent amount of people and couldn’t find a good spot although some people were packing up in the middle in a pretty exposed area. Given we were here early and the main goal was to swim and jump off the rocks we decided we’d just swim for a bit and then head back to the trailhead given its only about 4 miles away rather than spending another night in not-so-great spot. Ate lunch and swam for a bit and then head back out towards the trailhead around 2PM. Some people near the Crooked Lakes and lots of people around the Island Lake area (pretty crowded). Followed the sign towards Round Lake to the east on the south end of Island Lake and made it back to the truck by about 4:30PM. Surprisingly there weren’t that many more cars in the parking lot and the lower lot was still almost empty. Encountered quite a few vehicles heading in though on the way out which was a bit surprising for late afternoon on a Saturday.