Monday, April 3, 2017

Lake Clementine Trail



This weekend my son and I hiked up to Lake Clementine just outside of Auburn, California. The trail is 2.3 miles to the dam with a slight elevation change which made for a nice 5 mile hike. Lake Clementine is along the American River just outside of Auburn and about 30 minutes from my house in Gold River.




We started the hike just as the sun was coming up and we were the only ones on the trail. The weather was nice and no jacket was needed. The hike is along the river and once we got to the dam it was spilling over this time of year making for a beautiful view. On the way back we started to see mountain bikers, joggers and groups of hikers. I'm glad we started when we did. It was nice and peaceful with just us on the trail.

Another cool thing is the trail goes under the Forrest Hill Bridge. It is the highest bridge by deck height in California, and the fourth highest in the United States at 730 feet above the river. The bridge can be seen in the beginning of the 2002 film XXX in which Vin Diesel's character Xander Cage is seen driving a stolen red Chevrolet Corvette off of it, then jumping from the car mid-flight and parachuting to his accomplices at the bottom of the American River Canyon.



One note: It is a state park and parking is $10 in the parking area. There are plenty of trails in the area and we plan on doing a lot more hiking. 

After the hike we drove to the Amador Wine Country for wine tasting but that's another story.

No comments:

Post a Comment