Back in my teenage years my best friend and I used to hike into Tranquil basin each summer. The fly fishing was always great and rarely did we ever see another soul in this remote area. Well it’s been about 40 years since those days, so when Cody was asking about a possible location to hike to and fish, I suggested we give Tranquil a try. Having never been there he was up for the excursion. 

Most hikers visit Tranquil Basin via Edna creek trail off of Big River trail. This trail accesses the massive ridge line that sits above the Tranquil lakes but has poor access down to the lakes themselves. We elected to hike up the ravine that drains the two lakes down into Bear Creek. 

There is no Forest Service trail up this ravine just a rarely used hiking trail that is pretty much just used by goats, and the goats shy away from it because it’s to steep. Just kidding, it’s not quite that bad, but it sure seemed extreme compared to my childhood memories. 40 years and 50 lbs tend to change a persons perspective. 

This is the scene as you finally get to the easterly lake

The trail is somewhat difficult to follow, but if you have reasonable route finding skills you won’t have any trouble hiking into these lakes. It is about 2200 ft of elevation gain in a couple of miles, so it is very vertical. 

The trail navigates to the more easterly lake. We fished this for just a short period of time and only had one bite. To access the larger west lake we just bushwhacked our way across a ridge and down to the lake. This lake was reported to have been last stocked in 2010 by state game and fish so we were hopefull of some nice sized cutthroat.

The fishing was pretty slow, not near filling our expectations. Still just getting to be there and fish these beautiful lakes is worth the trip.