White Trout Lake – Campsite #1

I originally saw this site from a distance in 2017 and thought it looked nice, so when I had a permit again for White Trout Lake in 2019, I decided to check it out. From afar, it looks like a large, exposed campsite with an expansive rocky shoreline. But as you get closer you realize there’s no good landing spot for your canoe, and most of the site (including the rocky shoreline) is overgrown. The campsite marker has an image of a mosquito carrying a human while flying, which is unsettling and quite eerie. There’s one or two flat tent spots and a single bench in front of a well-built fire pit. There are decent tarping options and good privacy from the other sites as well as passerby’s. It’s not a bad site fundamentally, but it’s one of the few sites I’ve visited that just left a bad feeling in my stomach. When I visited this site I had just finished a long day of travels and was dead tired, but I knew I couldn’t stay there. Although, the view down White Trout Lake with the afternoon sun hitting the mountainous rocky cliffs on the opposing shoreline gives this campsite an incredibly beautiful view that made me consider staying for the night… if only for a brief second.