Granite Chief Trail — Attraction in Tahoe City

Make sure you have a GPS with the trail mapped.

I loved hiking this trail, but the trail isn't well marked in a few places. The uphill part of the trail was pretty intense. I started off kind of rough by missing a fork in the road in the first 1/2 mile. I ended up scaling the a steep rocky ledge without much warmup. That set my respiration back for the rest of the uphill.

This hike has a combination of every conceivable type of terrain. If you don't miss a turn, you won't have serious technical challenges. But you will get plenty of time on steep and rocky stretches.

Watch out for unstable boulders. This area has a lot of heavily weathered granite. What looks firm might break off and turn into gravel.

No doubt, this is a beautiful trail. There's no mountain peak at the end with a 360 panoramic view. But the view along the way is shocking and amazing.

This trail terminates at the Pacific Crest...

Started from the trailhead at 9am on a Monday in August. Easy to find parking. Granite Chief Trail from AllTrails turns around when it hits the PCT. I could see a tram in the distance, so chose to keep going up. Turned out that the one I was seeing wasn't functional. In summer, only the one at High Camp works, and I wasn't aware of this beforehand. So, then went up the Attic and Monument Ridge, and finally found Bailey's to take me to High Camp. The tram down from there to the trailhead is free. Spent quite a bit of time panicking that I wouldn't find the tram and would have to go all the way back how I came. Ended up with 7.5 miles and 2900 ft up over 3 hours from the trailhead...

Absolutely gorgeous hiking trail, one of my favorites ever! I went here with my Boy Scout troop and absolutely loved it. Lots of granite rocks to climb and explore along with waterfalls, creeks, and streams. Make sure you have the area saved offline on Google Maps...