Six Lakes Trail - Doris and Blow Lakes

Finding a trail I have not hiked before is getting harder all the time especially one worth sharing.
Just past Elk Lake with a sign labeled Six Lakes Trailhead. Parking lot was paved and surprisingly few cars considering I past Green Lakes Trailhead and Devil's Lake that had at least 40 cars parked off the high way for each because their parking lots were full.

For the first mile the trail starts off as nothing special. Mostly old burn area with lodge pole pine.

After finally cresting the hill the landscape changes.

The trail does not go directly to the lakes, you have to use trails created by fellow hikers to reach them. And there are more than one.

After Blow Lake then you run across the seasonal creek beds some still have water in them leaving a marshy area along the trail.









Another mile and a half and you reach Doris Lake. It took me an hour and 30 minutes to reach Doris so this hike is good for day hiking. These pictures don't do both of these lakes justice. To the left of the photo on the bottom is the other section of the lake. There were about 4 groups of people out there and they all had dogs, they should rename the lake Dog Lake. Unlike Blow Lake there were some sandy areas you could call a beach. Blow Lake had more rocky beach area. Both lakes were warm and shallow but I did see inflatable boats on them.

After walking back I ran across a woman jogging the other way and warning me of hornets she was trying to get away from. A few seconds later a large looking horse fly landed on my legs, it had yellow stripes on his body so maybe a hornet. it quickly took off to continue to chase the woman I think, I guess it realized I was the wrong person. I decided to go off the trail a bit to be safe and low and behold I discover another lake or I should say pond.

Back to bugs. I was not bothered by mosquitoes at all but I heard they are really bad around July here. The large black flies act like they own the trail but only a few times seem to be interested in me. Some may be horse flies but one did appear to be a hornet. Hard to tell when they are flying.