The first time I ever saw Owl Lake with my own eyes was when I had hiked all the way through Through Canyon to the head. From that moment when I first saw it far off in the distance, I knew that I wanted to hike out and see the dry lake for myself. Four months after getting my first view as described above, I had a chance to hike out to and explore Owl Lake during my Spring 2010 trip. The hike was about 5 miles each way from the parking area, which is along the Owlshead Mountains Road. We parked at the side of the road and just chose a drainage to follow down towards the lake. Owl Lake proved to be very interesting, as there was much to see. The lake itself was fascinating, but we also found small sinkholes or craters, 3 burros hanging out on the lake, and a vast green section of the lake where unusual plants were growing. If I had to choose between Owl Lake and Lost Lake, which I also visited on this trip, I think I found Owl Lake to be a little bit more interesting. But both were great and worthy destinations. Another aspect of Owl Lake is that it looks awesome from mountain viewpoints. I have now seen Owl Lake from three such viewpoints-- Through Canyon overlook, Sand Canyon overlook, and from the top of Sagenite Hill.
Looking back at the road which leads down from Sagenite Canyon to the Owl Lake parking area. The road begins dropping into and out of a series of washes beyond this point:
Looking further west on Owlshead Mountains Road. From this point to the parking area for Lost Lake the road was not in very good condition, but I made it through with 2wd:
View of Owl Lake close to 5 miles away from the parking area:
Steve heading down for his long awaited hike to the Owl Lake playa:
To reach Owl Lake, we would follow a drainage down until it started veering too far to the right, then we would cut over cross-country to the next drainage and take that for a while:
The next three pictures show you some of the surrounding hillsides and mountains we saw on our way to Owl Lake:
Continuing towards Owl Lake. One of the interesting things about our hike is we kept passing by scraps of airplane wreckage. There must have been a crash here a long time ago:
Just about to Owl Lake now. The hike was relatively easy and went fast:
Arriving on Owl Lake and checking out the terrain of cracked dried mud:
Looking to the west across Owl Lake:
View to the north across Owl Lake:
And this is the view to the east. Somewhere back there is the head of Sand Canyon:
And finally the view to the south, back towards Sagenite Hill and the parking area along Owlshead Mountains Road:
Two close-ups of the cracked mud on the Owl Lake playa:
Three pictures of Steve on Owl Lake with different backgrounds:
While walking around we came across this sinkhole with some surface water and wet mud across the bottom:
And we weren't alone out on Owl Lake, as we spotted these 3 burros:
Possibly an old airplane part or just a metal pipe found on the lake bed:
Next, we came to a part of Owl Lake that was more rocky across the surface:
Second sinkhole discovered with more surface water:
Close-up of the third sinkhole we discovered. There were several of these in the rocky and greenery sections:
Three views of the greenery section of Owl Lake. We were expecting Owl Lake to be a barren dry lake bed, but the southeastern corner was overgrowing with these plants:
In our final three pictures, we are taking a closer look at the mysterious plants growing out on Owl Lake: