Azure Lake Climbing

This digital Azure Lake climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Azure Lake days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

Located in Desolation Wilderness, the stunning spectrum of colors at Lake Azure have mesmerized visitors for many years. Many people come here just to enjoy the scenery. If you are a climber, there are also some impressive boulders to climb, backed by breathtaking views. The rock is ultra clean white granite, some of the finest quality in Tahoe. Please keep in mind Lake Azure is fairly deep in Desolation Wilderness and there are no formal trails to it. The approach is long, confusing and circuitous. It also involves lots of boulder and log hopping and branch ducking. I highl... Show more

This digital Azure Lake climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Azure Lake days smoother, safer, and more dialed. Located in Desolation Wilderness, the stunning spectrum of colors at Lake Azure have mesmerized visitors for many years. Many people come here just to enjoy the scenery. If you are a climber, there are also some impressive boulders to climb, backed by breathtaking views. The rock is ultra clean white granite, some of the finest quality in Tahoe. Please keep in mind Lake Azure is fairly deep in Desolation Wilderness and there are no formal trails to it. The approach is long, confusing and circuitous. It also involves lots of boulder and log hopping and branch ducking. I highly recommend looking on a map or google earth and getting a general idea of where it is before attempting the approach. A GPS will also be quite useful. In general, the approach follows the main drainage/creek that feeds Cascade Falls, with many incipient trails to make it confusing. Be ready to use your ninja backcountry skills on your first visit. The alternate approach from Eagle Lake is longer, but it’s less confusing and it uses a trail for large portion of the approach. DRIVING: Drive to the south side of Emerald Bay to Inspiration Point. Look across the street and you will see Bayview Campground. Drive to the top of the campground and park at the Bayview Trailhead. APPROACH: Take the left fork towards Cascade Falls on the Bayview Trail for 15 minutes to the top of the falls. From the top of the falls hike on the right side of the creek on faint trails for about 15 minutes until you arrive at some obvious slabs. Walk up the slabs, keeping the main creek to your left for 5 minutes until you get to the top of the slabs. Continue on numerous faint trails leading up the canyon for 20 minutes until you find a fork in the trail marked by a huge fallen tree, about 4 feet in diameter. The left fork leads to Snow Lake. The right fork leads to Lake Azure. Follow the right fork for 10-12 minutes until the trail ends at several broken cliffs and slabs, where the hill starts to get much steeper. From here start trending up right, following the main creek drainage, weaving up gullies to avoid the deepest brush, for 15 minutes until you arrive at Lake Azure.