The Twin Jewel Lakes are absolutely beautiful. To reach these lakes, you must take the Rooney Lake Main. This road is a couple of miles past the Adam River crossing on the north island highway, just out of Sayward. Turn left off the highway and head up the road. Go past Owen Lake on the Owen Lake Main, keeping left and heading up the mountain. This is a much rougher road than the Owen Lake road, and you should have a 4×4 or a vehicle with a lift kit, as there are some rough sections with large rocks and ruts. These lakes are worth the effort.
After you first see them, you will know why I think they are awesome. It’s two lakes that are separated by a short stream. At the far end of the lakes, there is a beautiful estuary that is quite walkable. The wildflower display here is phenomenal, to say the least. The meadows and shoreline are incredible to wander through and along.
There is a pretty good trail that takes you into this wonderful place of meadows and flowers. To find the trail, drive to the end of the lake where you find an old road, turn here, and you will immediately see a pullout with a fire ring, park here. There is an elk trail right at the parking spot; do not go down here. Instead, walk down the road for about 20 metres to where you see the trailhead on the right. This is a beautiful estuary, it’s where the creek flows out of the Twin Jewel Lakes and down the back of the valley, going down a series of drops until it reaches Kim Creek.
We saw lots of wildlife, which included many types of birds like ducks, grouse and songbirds. One of the grouse had a broken beak. A Peregrine falcon was flying about as well. There were black bears about, and one of them was quite big. As I hiked down to the other end of the first lake to take a few photos, I spotted a recent bear den, no one was at home, thank god. I did see fish jumping in the lake. This visit, I only went to the two ends of the lakes; next time, I will hike down to the area between the lakes. It looks pretty cool there.