Culbertson Lake - Nevada County, California

 

Visited on 10/25/2019, Jeff and I decided to travel to Tahoe National Forest and go on a 7.5 mile hike with our dogs and packed a lunch for our day trip journey.  Culbertson Lake is a 71 surface acre lake at an elevation of 6,520 feet above sea level.  The Lake is named after J.H. Culbertson who built the original dam in the 1850’s.  This lake is located in the Grouse Ridge Recreation Area of the Tahoe National Forest which is located 8 miles north of Highway 20 just off of Bowman Road then 4 miles until you reach the Lindsey Lake Campground.  The last 4 miles along the Lindsey Lake Road is a little rough and a 4x4 vehicle is advised due to clearance, but we made it just fine with our Jeep Wrangler.  We parked at the designated backcountry parking area just below the Lindsey Lake dam.  We hiked up the grade thru the campground where four separate shoreline campers were enjoying a relaxing day along the northern shore of Lindsey Lake.  We ventured thru the gate accessed with a trail head sign and a map of the area.   About a mile along the hiking path (private road) we decided to take a right turn at Middle Lindsey Lake and hike along the eastern shore until we reached the much smaller Upper Lindsey Lake.  We continued along the creek until we got our first view of Culbertson Lake approaching from the southwest end of the lake. 

The view of the Lake was gorgeous with the Fall colors exploding and it was such a perfect weather day.  Very little wind, 64 degrees as a high and we only saw one other hiker on the trail the whole way.   We stopped and had lunch on the western shore of Culbertson and soaked in the serenity and peaceful surroundings while enjoying a few ducks swim across the lake in the distance.  We continued along the western side of the lake until we joined back up with the main hiking trail and private road.  We continued to the most northern point of Culbertson Lake where the dam is located.  There are two or three resident homes along the lake near the dam.  Our dogs enjoyed us tossing the stick into the lake a few times before we made our way back to where we parked our Jeep Wrangler at the parking lot.  We covered over 7.5 miles and enjoyed our day at Culbertson Lake.  We both agreed this was one of the most enjoyable hikes to a remote lake that we have taken.

There we are at Culbertson Lake enjoying the peacefulness and serenity of this beautiful 71 surface acre lake at an elevation of 6,250 feet above sea level. We are standing on the dam on the north end of the lake.