Distance: 2 (Loop)
Time Needed: 45 minutes to 1 hour
A popular trials for families and fisherman alike, this classic 2 mile loop hugs the shore line of Gull Lake, home of the monster trout.
The trial meanders by the shoreline and marshland before climbing a small hill briefly taking you into sagebrush fields. The trial returns to shoreline via an aspen grove.
It than wraps around the east end of the lake and through the campground before returning to the parking by the June Lake Community Center.
On hot summer days take the Fisherman’s Trail on the east end of the lake to enjoy a rope swing and a great swimming hole.
Gull Lake Interpretive Guided Walk:
Look for wood markers to follow along
1) June Lake Community Center & Park
From the trailhead at the June Lake Community Center, the Gull Lake Loop Trail winds counter-clockwise around the lake to the Gull Lake Marina. After climbing halfway up a small hill through sagebrush, the trail turns left (west) affording sweeping views of the lake, June Mountain to the left and Carson Peak straight head. Please Please respect the privacy of cabin owners as you walk behind their homes.
Fun Fact: Community Center houses the June Lake Thrift Store and Library. The building was built with through a community fundraising effort led by the June Lake Women’s Club
2) Meadow Habitat
The meadow rimming the lake shore in front of you acts as mother nature’s water filter. The spongy soil, luxuriant carpet of rushes, and wall of thirsty willow shrubs slow down and clean water running off from the surrounding uplands. Please stay on the trail to protect the meadows ability to preserve the clarity of Gull Lake. You’re standing on an ecotone -a meeting of two distinct habitat types. As the soil dries out uphill, the lush meadow is replaced by more drought-tolerant Sierra Juniper trees, bunches of Great Basin Wildrye and gray-leaved sage brush.
3) Glaciation
The Loop is a classic U-shaped canyon carved out by massive glaciers. The glacier that flowed down from upper Rush Creek to the right of Carson Peak split into two as it collided with the resistant bedrock of Reversed Peak behind you. As this split glacier receded at the end of the last ice age, it left behind a hill of glacier debris called a terminal moraine, now known as Oh! Ridge.
Looking toward Gull Lake, Fisherman’s Rock – the rocky outcropping rising steeply from the west shore – is a classic Roche Moutonée (French for sheepback). As the glacier flowed down from the Sierra crest, it smoothed and polished the right face of the limestone outcrop and sheared off a steep left side.
4) Aspen Grove
Welcome to the quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) grove, home of one of the most widely distributed tree species in North America. When the wind blows through these tall, thin trees, the leaves of the aspen trees shake and tremble in a beautiful show as sunlight shimmers on the quivering leaves. The cold nights and short days of Fall trigger a series of chemical reactions in the aspen leaves that create on of California’s most spectacular Fall color shows.
The soft wood of the aspen makes for perfect homes for cavity-nesting birds like red-breasted sapsuckers, northern flickers and mountain bluebirds.
5) Mixed Conifer Forest
Before you stand three sisters of the mixed conifer forest: two-short needled Lodgepole Pine with its flaky grey-brown bark, shreddy-barked Sierra Juniper with short, safely leaves and the reddish-trunked, three-long needled Jeffrey Pine that has dropped the pineapple-sized cones to the right. Stop and listen to the change in the song of the wind as the breeze blows through straight pine needles. The large Jefffrey Pine upslope to the right has sung this song since America became a nation - well over 200 years ago. As you continue up trail, watch for a fourth member of the conifer family - the flat-needled white fir poking through the aspen your left.
6) Ancient Seas
Check out the stopped lines standing straight up on the rock atop the hill. Deposited on a shallow sea floor these stripes are ancient sea beds laid down flat in an ancient ocean 350 million years ago. As continents shifted, mountains rose and volcanoes erupted, this rock was folded, cooked, squeezed into this colorful limestone knob.
7) Gull Lake Campground To Gull Lake Marina
From here the trail continues west through the campground eventually ending at the Gull Lake Marina. Watch for Osprey fishing in the lake. These large grey and white birds enjoy a daily routine of catching fish in the June Lake Loop to feed their young perched safely atop tufa towers along the shore of the salty Mono Lake. Please respect the private summer homes along this portion of the trail.