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Spent the night at Lake Eleanor Camp for a nice short test trip with all our gear. Got to the trailhead at about 5:30pm for the quick mile or so up the trail to Lk Eleanor. We had the camp to ourselves on this August Thursday, a surprise after seeing 3 cars already sitting in the small parking turnout on our arrival. The weather in the evening was pleasant, though the lake was very buggy the whole time we were there.

This sign at the trailhead is about 1500 ft off the actual elevation, not sure how this came to be

Nice view of the lake from near the campsite

The rain started at about midnight and we awoke to a foggy lake and damp campsite. We ended up only going about 2.5 miles up the trail to Grand Park before turning around, it was still pretty but with no visibility and the hot, dry summer having killed off any hope of wildflowers I gave up on plans to continue onto the Northern Loop for a longer hiking day to Berkeley Park or elsewhere. We quickly descended back to the campsite and assembled our tents (the mosquitos were happy to help!) and were on the road by about noon. We passed two backpacking parties headed up towards Eleanor on our way down and the rain mostly subsided by the time we were back at the car.

Grand Park on the second day

Not what you'd expect in August, but it's hard to complain about rain when this might be all we get this summer

Improving weather as we left

Overall, a nice trip, it would've been nice if the weather cooperated and allowed us to get more hiking in on our second day, but it's rare to find such an uncrowded pleasant lake so close to a trailhead not too far from civilization.