The Desolation Wilderness is heavily used, and fairly small compared to areas further south, but its also quite pretty and I'm warming to its potential for shorter (1-3 night) trips. Last weekend I hiked from Glen Alpine trailhead to Clyde Lake, past Susie, Heather, and Aloha.
There was light rain before I started hiking, and it seemed quite muggy most of Saturday. Clouds built quickly:
but never really amounted to much. The humidity blew away as the afternoon progressed and the weather changed,
Clyde Lake has one really nice campsite...but unfortunately someone else got there by, literally, five minutes. There are other places there that are nice spaces for camping, though they lack views of Clyde Lake and are near what are mosquito ponds, and there are places that are beautifully located (views of the lake, above the skeeter ponds, etc.) but are challenging places to put a tent. So I chose the latter, and woke up to:
Three more pictures...
Rockbound Valley from Mosquito Pass:
Susie Lake, which I think combines the best of the forest/lake/bare-granite scenery on the trip:
Lake Aloha, from Mosquito Pass:
There were a few snow patches on the trip, nothing to worry about. The mosquitoes were vicious above 8000 ft., thankfully it was fairly breezy while I was camping at Clyde.