Big Reservoir - Placer County, California

Visited 01/21/2018 – Jeff and I loaded up our two dogs, Summer and Skye and took a nice Sunday drive up to the Sierra Foothills in our Jeep Wrangler.  Just above Big and Sugar Pine Reservoir we encountered lots of snow from the recent storms.  Even though we did not have chains, we kicked it into 4 wheel drive and did just fine navigating the snow packed roads.  Big Reservoir in heavily wooded forest was hard to get to because they close all the access roads that link Sugar Pine to Big Reservoir during the winter months.  We traveled to the east and went down Elliott Ranch Road.  The Jeep was covered in mud and we had the hardest time finding the lake.  Big Reservoir, also known as Morning Star Lake is not really big at all with just 54 acres in size.  This lake is just to the east 2 miles from Sugar Pine Reservoir and 9 miles north of the town of Forest Hill, California in the Tahoe National Forest at an elevation of 4,042 feet above sea level.

Dirty Jeep from the muddy roads to get to Big Reservoir just down the road.

We took a break from the white knuckle driving on the snow packed roads to enjoy the view of the Sierra Mountains topped with snow.  The dogs enjoyed playing in the white stuff!