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Trip Report    

Backpack – BPX 4-Day: Skinny Fish Lake from Skinny Fish TH then Wall Lake loop from Wall Lake TH

We changed the trip to a day hike to Skinny Fish and returned to our car camp sites at the Shepherd's Rim Campground near Trappers Lake. The backpack up to Wall Lake was beautiful. Campsites are located on the north side of the lake ( not the west side) just a little past the large post designating Wall Lake. We had 7 tents but I recommend a smaller group.

Holly Myers Holly Myers
August 25, 2023
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • There is often rain every afternoon and we had rain all days we were there.  We adjusted our trip due to the rain, just doing a day trip from Wall Lake to Parvin Lake overlook. It rained, and thunder stormed for 6 hours at least Thursday night,  and began raining Friday morning when we were packing up. But it still was a good trip with beautiful views. There is a running stream very near Wall Lake that is better for accessibility getting water.  Much of Wall Lake is inaccessible due to willows. But on the north side if you walk all the way around there are some excellent camp sites for large groups and there are small sections of accessible shoreline for obtaining water on the north side but you have to look for them. I recommend taking extra bags for water and filling up at the stream before you reach the lake. Trails are well marked. Some portions have encroaching willows making rain gear a must if the vegetation is wet.

We reserved campsites at Shepherd's Rim campground and had no problem obtaining sites if reserved well in advance. I recommend a day trip to Skinny Fish and McGinnis Lake rather than an overnight backpack.  Hiking down 2.5 miles and 1,000 ft and then up to Wall Lake 1,400 ft and 4.5 miles is a bit much for some people.  Our group did well making Wall Lake be our destination first thing in the morning. Mosquitos were not a big problem at this time of the year.  Had we gone in July they may have been very bad.  Still there were some so mosquito repellant and head nets are recommended. Due to impending rain the third day of our trip when we would have packed up and gone to Parvin Lake we stayed where we were and did a day hike instead to Parvin Lake overlook.  There is a lot of downed timber and willows  at Parvin Lake seen from Google Earth, so I never did find out if there are good campsites for 8 tents.  I recommend a party of 4 or 5 for this trip. The trail is easy to follow. 20230824_082629.jpg