Chocolate-Ruwau Loop Trail

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Features Lake · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

From the split with the Bishop Pass Trail near Long Lake, the trail starts ascending with some earth retention logs to jump up and over. This part is in a small forest, but soon the trail breaks out and comes up to Ruwau Lake, a very beautiful alpine lake at the feet of the Inconsolable Range. In Ruwau Lake, there are lots of golden trout than can be seen from the shoreline.

After contouring around the north side of Ruwau Lake, the trail starts to ascend again to a saddle below Chocolate Peak. From here, you can see the west side of Cloudripper (13,525 ft), which is really impressive because of all the jagged cliffs. This is also the best spot to break off the trail if you wish to summit Chocolate Peak. There is a series of braided, faint trails that all head towards the peak but eventually fade as you get closer to the top, so the best option is to simply head up in the direction of the peak if you are wishing to summit it.

From this saddle, the trail drops somewhat steeply toward the Chocolate Lakes, which is a series of pretty lakes also full of fish and great for skipping rocks at. The trail continues past these lakes and through sparse forests and meadows until it reaches Bull Lake, the last lake along this trail. From this point, the trail follows the shore of the lake and then drops down into a drainage and then rises back up until it reaches the Bishop Pass Trail again, less than a quarter of a mile from the lower outlet of Long Lake.

Golden trout in the lakes.