Читать книгу Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. A Hiking and Backpacking Guide онлайн

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From the open east edge of the shelf a sensational panorama unfolds, including the entire upper Stuart Fork Canyon. Emerald and Sapphire Lakes shimmer far below, with sheer canyon walls climaxing in Sawtooth Ridge to the north and Sawtooth Mountain to the south. Sunrises seen from this lofty perch can be truly inspirational.

The heavy use that prevails around the two lower lakes is rare at Mirror Lake, but please tread lightly here and leave no remnants of your presence. A few unprotected, fair campsites lie in the hollows of rock southeast of the lake. Although more trees seem able to survive up here than down at Sapphire Lake, firewood is extremely scarce and should not be used. Shallow pockets of the lake may be warm enough for swimming by mid-August afternoons, and 10-inch rainbows cruising the drop-offs near sunset will tempt anglers. Rock climbers should find the walls of the upper cirque challenging.

Mirror Lake certainly lives up to its name; soaring walls of granite on three sides, punctuated by dwarfed weeping spruce and mountain hemlock, and a perpetual snowfield above the west shore are stunningly reflected in the usually placid water. For thousands of years, slowly moving ice ground and gouged at the resistant granite shelf, leaving behind the polished mounds and ridges and the 12- to 15-acre lake with a convoluted shoreline and four small rock islands.