Maggies Peak

Maggies Peak sits right above Emerald Bay, and for a hike that's barely two and a quarter miles each way, it packs in a ridiculous amount of scenery. The Bayview Trail climbs fast right out of the gate, switchbacking up through forest into Desolation Wilderness, and even the approach delivers — Granite Lake was still half-covered in ice in the third week of May, dark granite walls and lingering snowfields reflected in the open water at the edges.

Past the lake, the trail keeps climbing to a boulder-strewn saddle between Maggies' two summits before the real work starts: a short, off-trail scramble over granite blocks to the true summit, with no marked path, just picking a line through the rock.

The top is where this hike earns its reputation. Walk a few steps in one direction and it's Cascade Lake, Fallen Leaf Lake, and the full blue sweep of Lake Tahoe laid out below. Walk a few steps the other way and it flips completely — the snow-choked peaks and cirques of interior Desolation Wilderness, with at least one high alpine lake still locked in ice, spread out in the other direction. Very few summits this short give you two entirely different mountain ranges' worth of view.

Short, steep, and absurdly scenic for the effort — one of the best return-on-investment hikes anywhere around the lake.