Well, Thousand Island Lake saved its best for last. Our last morning there was a beauty - gorgeous, dramatic lighting and some building clouds. It was our only day with significant clouds in the morning and as we set out on the trail we were sure we were going to get rained on. Today was the “gem lakes” - Emerald, Ruby, and Garnet - with a final stop at Ediza. Including walks around the lakes, our distance for the day was around 8 miles with 1500 feet ascent. From our Thousand Island Lake campsite We returned to the JMT and headed south to the turnoff for Ediza Lake (~5.5 miles from our campsite). Along the way we stopped briefly at Emerald and Ruby Lakes, keeping an eye on the skies. When we reached a nice rocky overlook of Garnet Lake, the top of Banner Peak was obscured by the clouds and as we sat there it cleared and we were treated to even better views.
We continued along the JMT to walk over the bridge at the Garnet Lake outlet and then a ~430 foot climb to a ridge above the lake. After a ~1100 foot descent to the junction we took a break by Shadow Creek. From here the Shadow Creek Trail would take us to Ediza Lake. It wasn’t a long or hard hike to the lake (a 300 foot climb over 1.5 miles), but we would have to circumnavigate nearly the whole lake (about an extra mile) to get to our campsite. The legal campsites begin at the inlet of the lake on the western side and we kept going past that to find a great site at the edge of the trees close to the lake. It wasn’t a long day and we reached our campsite in good time, so we had ample time in the afternoon to enjoy the lake. Steve did an extra hike to Nydiver Lakes while Norah and I lazed about the campsite enjoying the views and reading our Kindles. The day had started off threatening and the rain we thought for sure would materialize never did. Sunset was a bust (both the angle of the sun where we were camped and it was clear skies); fortunately sunrise would make up for it in the morning.