The nice thing about Clear Lake is that, even though it is at 12,000 feet, you can drive up to it. When I visited several years ago I hiked up from South Mineral Creek campground, a few miles northwest of Silverton, but this time I drove. The lake is bigger than it looks here. The ridge line is about 1,200 feet above the water level. If you look at the shore on the far left you might be able to see three little white dots. Those are people. (For more detail, download the Original size. It's a slight crop of the full frame.)

Anyway, I was hoping to climb to the top of the ridge because there's another nice little lake on the other side, Island Lake, and on an adjacent ridge there's a plaque to my friend Joel Zucker, who died after completing the Hardrock a few years ago.