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As we prepped in the parking lot, three fishermen started off on the hike ahead of us. We
would see them later at the lake, but I'm not sure if they caught anything. We crossed the
road and then started off on the trail to Lukens Lake, shortly passed by another group of 4
hikers. Other than those people at the start, though, we didn't encounter a lot of other hikers.
A few, to be sure, but not as many as I would expect for a lake so close to the road.
Trailhead mileage sign
The trail immediately crosses a little stream -- small enough that you can probably jump
across. The trail then climbs steadily through the forest.
The lake sits about 30 feet higher than the trailhead. From the trailhead, the trail climbs
about 150 feet in elevation, then flattens out briefly before descending about 120 feet to the
edge of a meadow and stream. There's a sign here explaining that the trail was rerouted in 2008
to help restore the meadow. The sign tells people to stay on the trail to the left of the lake,
instead of going to the right like the old trail used to.
Hiking up the trail
Wildflowers at the edge of the meadow
The trail turns left, then follows the edge of the meadow which was filled with wildflowers
when we visited. Soon, the lake is visible ahead, to the right, past some trees. We soon came to
the lake edge, passing by the three fishermen we'd seen earlier. We continued to the end of the
lake, then crossed over a small stream before turning right to continue on the other side of the lake.
Hiking past corn lilies
Meadow and edge of lake
Lukens Lake
We stopped at a spot next to the lake where the trail veers left and heads toward White Wolf
campground,
about 2.5 miles away. While we ate lunch, we noticed mosquitoes, ants, and lots of
dragonflies and damselflies of various species. While we enjoyed the scenery, there were only about
10 other people around the lake, spread out along the shore.
Lukens Lake
Western shore of Lukens Lake
Damselflies
A large group of people came as we left, however. We returned the same way we came. When we got
to the sign at the edge of the meadow, we ran into a park ranger, who we would later find out
was doing the campfire program at White Wolf that night. It looked like she was taking pictures
of some of the wildflowers in the meadow. We chatted briefly, then headed back to the trailhead.
Heading back
Lukens Lake reflection
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