This is the tremendous view after hiking that first 1/2-mile. Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay is down below. Angela is sitting at our picnic lunch spot, perched precariously on rocks just a few feet from a 500-foot drop. Not a good lunch spot for those uncomfortable with heights.
Still near our lunch spot (but looking about 180 degrees away from the picture above), if you look closely, you'll notice small parts of THREE lakes. That's Lake Tahoe in the left of the picture, with a piece of Cascade Lake just below, and a sliver of Fallen Leaf Lake in the right side.
One more shot of Emerald Bay from near our lunch spot (actually, about a 30-second walk above our lunch spot, which provided an even more gorgeous view).
The destination of this short hike -- Granite Lake. Yet another pretty lake surrounded by snowy mountains (hills?). Although this was our intended destination, we decided to walk further on the trail, as we'd heard the views from the ridge were great. We were able to walk for about 15-20 minutes before the snow yet again made the trail impassable, and we had to turn back.
Remember when I wrote "one more shot of Emerald Bay from near our lunch spot?". I lied. Here's a panorama that captures much of that view (though it still isn't anything like being there).
