DAPPLED LEOPARD LILIES , purplish blue-hued monk's hood, six-foot-tall azalea bushes covered in fragrant blooms, magenta shooting stars edged with yellow – these are just a few of the wildflowers a summer hiker is lucky enough to encounter in northwest California's Trinity Alps.

Named for their resemblance in landscape and lush mountain flora to the Swiss Alps, the Trinity Alps are part of the Klamath Mountains, which range through several national forests and wilderness areas, including the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Klamath National Forest, and the Trinity Wilderness Area. Although not as high-peaked or dramatic as the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges (higher peaks attain a mere 9,000 feet), the Klamaths offer some of the most unspoiled and botanically diverse scenery in California. And the Trinity Alps are the most beautiful place I've ever been.

While the Shasta-Trinity-Klamath complex has enough hiking, skiing, water sports, fishing, and flora and fauna to fill a fat guidebook, the Trinity Alps area is especially noteworthy. Less traveled, and dotted with fantastic alpine lakes and swimming holes, it's relatively close to the coast, meaning it's wetter and lusher than other parts of the Klamaths. The quality of green you see here can make you feel high, not unlike the sensation of jumping into one of those alpine lakes' literally icy water.

One year on a hike up to Ward Lake – my favorite, and a good introduction to the wonders of the Trinities – the ice had melted just around the edges, despite the intense (for a San Franciscan) summer heat. After I went in, the three guys I was with suddenly felt compelled to as well. They didn't stop shivering for several hours. And I nearly died on the way back, sliding down a snowy mountain slope with only an ice axe to slow my progress, but that's another story ...

You can reach Ward from Big Flat campground, elevation 5,760 feet and located on Coffee Creek in the Klamath National Forest. Big Flat features nine no-fee, no-reservation, pack-in-pack-out campsites with vault toilets and no drinking water. Anyone who can make do with that gets convenient access to several trailheads leading to gorgeous hikes, with or without rivers, meadows, mountain passes, gold-mining sites, and of course, lakes – the Trinities being home to more than 80 of them (and those are just the ones with names). These are clear, glacial lakes of the granite-bottomed variety, not the muddy, reedy sort we have in the lowlands. From Big Flat you can hike to three lakes in one day and be back for supper.

If you don't like roughing it, try for a space at the nearby, low-key Trinity Mountain Meadow Resort (530-462-4677, www.mountainmeadowresort.com), where a week in a double cabin and three fabulous meals a day runs $785 a person. Don't be fooled by the word "resort." It's small, there are no other accommodations besides the campground for miles and miles, and you might hike for a whole day without seeing another soul.

You are, however, likely to see – or at least experience – bears. Although one guidebook says the black bears of the region are rarely spotted, I usually see at least a couple during my weeklong hiking sojourns. They're glossy and beautiful, but they're also a nuisance, as they do everything in their power to get to human food. If you leave food in your car, expect some smashed glass and/or metal. Learn to bear-proof before you backpack in the Trinities.

And you might want to brush up on your California history too, as the drive through Weaverville, with its Chinese Taoist temple, and the hiking trails, still marked by the gold rush, offer reminders of who and what built northern California. The present-day inhabitants of the Trinity area are also worth noting: in the past 150-odd years they've tried to secede from California twice. And parts of the Trinity Wilderness Area were "once ruled by armed pot growers," according to Kim Weir's Northern California Handbook.

Personally, I've never run into any. Instead, I've sauntered through meadows inhabited by frogs and butterflies, panted up exposed switchbacks, scrambled on scree, slid down snowbanks in mid August, rested in the shade of the ponderosa pine, seen more types of flowers than anywhere else, drunk from glacial springs, and immersed myself in numerous bodies of the clearest water in California. Oh, and no poison oak! That's one plant that can't survive at these heights.

If you go

When to go The best time is late June through early September. Conditions, of course, depend on snow- and rainfall. Check the Shasta-Trinity (www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity) and Klamath National Forest Service (www.fs.fed.us/r5/klamath) sites before making plans.

Recommended reading Luther Linkhart's The Trinity Alps: A Hiking and Backpacking Guide and Alice Goen Jones's Flowers and Trees of the Trinity Alps.