Barrett Lake & T.j. Lake Trailhead

This is a nice, fairly quick hike. It is moderate in difficulty, mainly in the beginning, but worth it. Start at Lake George and follow a wide path through the campground to the trailhead. Once you cross a bridge across a creek, you will be in a shady area that has a beautiful view of part of Lake George. Continue and this is where the hike gets a bit tough. For a short bit, the trail is very steep and large rock steps are provided. Some of these steps are so high that I was glad I had my hiking poles when I came back down. You will likely have to carry your small children over these steps. If you get tired, turn around and look at the incredible view of Lake George.
Once you pass this steep section, the trail mellows out, though it remains slightly uphill the whole way to TJ Lake. Barrett Lake isn’t incredibly scenic. Between Barrett and TJ, there is a fork in the trail that you can take to Emerald Lake which is another lake worth seeing. The trail officially ends at the north shore of TJ Lake. The lake is beautiful, so to make the most out of it, maybe pack a lunch as there isn’t a lot to do at the lake.
There is a narrow fisherman’s trail that goes around the lake and some sections are blocked by trees, boulders and some sections are steep downhill. Be very careful going on this trail because it comes to a sudden end about 70% around the lake, and you will not want to climb back out. The only way to keep going is to do some rock climbing. I did this for some reason (with a GPS) and it was quite a challenge. Without doing the fisherman’s trail, this hike would have been about 2 hours roundtrip if even that.
If you want to make a day out of this, I would recommend visiting TJ, then taking the fork in the trail to Emerald Lake (and up to Sky Meadows if you’re adventurous), then to the Duck Pass Trail to see Arrowhead Lake or Skelton Lake (though following the trail back to civilization will take you to Coldwater Campground which then requires about a mile walk back to Lake George along the road). Still, you can see a lot by creating your own adventure on this trail system.

Barrett and TJ lake is a nice short hike but moderate in difficulty. I was huffing and puffing.
Barrett seemed to be drying up though and there didn’t seem to be any trout living there. As we walked around that lake we decided to move on to TJ which isn’t more than a ¼ mile.

TJ had a lot more water and seemed very peaceful and was a perfect opportunity to take pictures. There weren’t too many people there and after a few minutes we decided to leave.

Loved this hike. A gorgeous short 2 mile round trip hike to 3 beautiful lakes. Can’t get any better than that. The trail starts out at Lake George and is short and fairly easy, but steep in spots (however going back is all downhill). After hitting the steep spots you will hit Barrett Lake which is the smallest of the 3 lakes and not the prettiest in my opinion. A short walk from Barrett Lake is TJ Lake which is stunning and worth the extra walk. We took a picnic lunch and ate along the shores while taking in the peace and quiet before heading back. Overall takes about 1 ½ hours to 2 hours depending on pace and if you stop to take numerous pics like I did.
Park in the Lake George campground. The trailhead is to the left of the parking lot as you drive in. Highly recommend this hike!

At the time I write this, there is only one other review and it seems they gave it a low rating because of how hard the trail is. I’ve hiked Mammoth for 5 years and I can say that on a 1 – 10 scale this might be about a 3. There are some simpler hikes in Mammoth. I’ve seen 70 year people do this as well as kids of about 5, but if you have any conditions or don’t enjoy the challenge that is hiking, maybe this isn’t the trail for you. This one is rocky coming off the lake, but after that mellows out to a nice trail. You will first run into Barrett Lake which is nice, but personally it’s TJ Lake that always blows me away with it’s backdrop. At some parts of the year you can find the outlet of the lake which makes nice ponds and a stream that flows down into Lake George. We’ve followed that stream and had a great time. Each year this tends to be our warm up hike to bigger and better things in beautiful Mammoth.

The trailhead for this short hike is right next to the Lake George Campground, and there is plenty of paved parking in the Lake George day-​use area. All of the area visitors’ lit ranks this hike as «easy,» and it starts out as such… just a leisurely stroll around the picturesque shore of the lake. But after it crosses the lake outlet, the trail makes a steep turn straight up the mountain. The grade here is way too steep, and parts of it covered in way too much shale, for this to be considered an «easy» hike, and we passed several families having a hard time getting their small children up and down the trail. Things smooth out at Barrett Lake, which is, frankly, nothing special. I was looking forward to the advertised wildflowers at T.J. Lake, but the trail petered out and we were too exhausted from the climb to do any real scouting to find it.