Sotcher Lake

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Sotcher Lake

Located along the road from Mammoth Lakes into Red's Meadow and Devils Postpile. Small lake, but rather unique location, wonderful scenery, and few kayakers visit. Normally, you are required to take a motorcoach shuttle from the Mammoth Mountain ski area into the valley. The only exceptions are if you are camping, staying at the lodge, or you are carrying a kayak or canoe. So with your kayak or canoe atop the car or on a boat trailer, you can drive on down yourself :)

There is one parking area for the lake, with vault type toilet. The drawback it the fact that the put-in is about a 2 minute walk from the parking area. Well worth the walk, unless your boat weighs a ton! Picnic tables and grills right by the put-in site.

You can paddle around the lake in about 25 minutes or so, however there is a lot of beauty here and lots of wildlife, so plan on at least an hour or more gliding along and just taking it all in. Beaver dams, etc are on east side of lake. Red's Meadow campground, while not at the lake, is a short distance south of the lake.

Make sure you take the time to visit Devils Postpile (turn-off about 1 minute north of lake). Hike from ranger station to Devils Postpile takes perhaps an easy 15-20 minutes. Suggest you walk a few minutes past Devils Postpile along the John Muir trail, and follow signs to the picnic area. Great views here of the San Joaquin River - you are close to the river's source, which flows all the way down to Stockton and into the Pacific. Can't really paddle the river here, as just below are reportedly some very nasty waterfalls, rapids, etc. You can also dip your toes into the river near the ranger station. Cost to enter this area (August 2008) was $7 per person - and they do not accept the US Park Service annual card.

Here is the current link to a NPS map showing Devil's Postpile/Red Meadows/Sotcher Lake area: http://www.nps.gov/depo/planyourvisit/upload/DEPO_Park_Map.pdf