Caught a lucky break

3/6/2025 Granite Lakes

As is often the case, I left my house with two hiking options for the day - if it was clear, I was going to hike to a mountain peak, and if not, I'd hike to a lake. Given that the nearby peaks were all covered in low clouds, I chose to hike a favorite, Granite Lakes.

Snow was not much of an issue. I only encountered snow for the last mile, which was just a few inches. Only within a hundred feet or so of the lake was the snow over a foot deep. This is much less than other years I've come here in the winter. I did not need the microspikes, but poles helped with the few icy patches.

During the entire hike up, the clouds hung around. I was so fortunate that the sky cleared as soon as I got to the lake. I had the lake all to myself, so I sat on a sunny, snow-covered rock and enjoyed a snack and the scenery for about thirty minutes. As soon as I left, the clouds rolled in again.

My favorite part of the hike was this tree that was giving off steam as the sun touched it for the first time that day. The video does it justice better than the still image.