Trail-Tested: Chasing Fall Colors in Green Creek Canyon to West Lake

It had been five years since I last set foot in Green Creek Canyon, one of my favorite fall hiking canyons on the Eastern Sierra just south of Bridgeport. This past Saturday, my hiking buddy Tom and I decided to change that. We’ve covered plenty of miles together over the years — most recently in the Emigrant Wilderness — but it had been too long since our last trip. The forecast promised cool temperatures and maybe a touch of wind, but that didn’t matter. Fall in the Sierra waits for no one.

Return to a Familiar Canyon

Green Creek Canyon sits tucked between Twin Lakes and the Virginia Lakes corridor, a gateway into the Hoover Wilderness that’s as rich in history as it is in scenery. The trail is a local favorite for backcountry anglers and backpackers who use it as part of a semi-loop route into Virginia Canyon during the summer. In the fall, the draw is the color — glowing aspens, willow tunnels, and the steady work of beavers who keep reshaping the landscape.

We arrived at the trailhead around 10:30 a.m. A couple was heading in for a backpacking trip over the pass toward Virginia Lakes. They looked layered up and ready for the cold, and with Monday’s forecast calling for snow, we wished them luck. For us, this was a day to take it slow and soak it all in.

The Climb to Green Lake

The trail to Green Lake is a modest three miles with roughly a thousand feet of elevation gain — enough to make you earn the view but easy enough to pause and enjoy the ridgelines and shifting colors of the Hoover Wilderness. Gold brushed the willows along the creek, while high above, jagged granite peaks already hinted at winter’s approach.

We’d been here before — on that trip, we pushed farther to East Lake — but this time West Lake was calling. At the final yellow tunnel of aspen leaves, we reached the trail junction, looked at each other, and said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Up to West Lake

The side trail climbs another 1.5 miles and about 600 feet higher into a narrower canyon north of Green Lake. The first ridge offered a sweeping view back down into the Green Creek basin, with its patchwork of color and shadow. Beyond it, the trail cuts across talus and well-built switchbacks up a steep nose of granite. The work paid off — cresting the final rise, we looked down on West Lake, perfectly clear and deep blue under the afternoon sun.

A friend once told me this lake holds some solid cutthroat and brown trout, but today the wind made fishing nearly impossible. We pulled on a third layer, our gloveless hands stinging in the cold air, and settled on a boulder for PB&J sandwiches. The laughter came easy — the kind of simple joy that comes from shared miles and hard-earned views.

A Quiet Ride Home

We lingered just long enough to take photos, knowing this would likely be our last Hoover Wilderness hike of 2025. The wind chased us out of the basin, and as we descended through the glowing aspens, we both fell quiet. It had been a year full of trails — some familiar, some new — and this felt like the right note to end on.

Back in Bridgeport, the Burger Barn was calling, as it always does. Burgers, fries, and the comfortable silence of two tired hikers watching the late-day light on the Sierra crest — a perfect close to another year of exploring.

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