The Slickrock Jeep Trail is located about two hours south of South Lake Tahoe, just off the 4 HWY and near to Bear Valley in the Stanislaus National Forest. Starting up on west shore of the picturesque Lake Alpine, the Slickrock Trail parallels the cascading clear waters of Silver Creek and makes its way over huge slabs of granite, through impressive sloped granite walled canyons, down steep granite Moab style descents, across a cool stream, up over a challenging rocky climb and then finally coming to an end at the beautiful Utica Reservoir. And, while this trail is only 5.2 miles long and can be done in about 3 hours, you should be prepared for it to take the better part of a day to complete as there is just so much to see and do along the way. On our trip, we were fortunate enough to be treated to brilliant displays of wildflowers, equally colorful butterflies, several deer staring at us from the woods, a fast swiming water snake in the creek and of course, stunning views across the Stanislaus National Forest and Carson Iceberg Wilderness. But, having said all that, I think the absolute best part of this trail was being able to playing in the myriad of pools that Silver Creek has uniquely sculpted and carved out of the pink granite it flows over near the end of the trail.
