Round Top

Back to Round Top for a second lap, same approach past Winnemucca Lake and Round Top Lake with the Mokelumne Wilderness's dark volcanic rock all around, and the same hands-on-rock scramble for the last few hundred feet to the summit. The old National Geodetic Survey benchmark disk is still cemented into the rock up there, right where I remembered it from the first visit.

Clear skies made for a huge view off the summit ridge — Winnemucca and Round Top Lakes sitting below in their granite bowls, patches of lingering snow still streaking the upper slopes even in mid-July, and the Sierra crest stretching out in every direction. A short, easy scramble over from the true summit opened up an even better look straight down onto Winnemucca Lake, deep blue against the surrounding talus.

On the way back down I swung by Round Top Lake itself, a smaller alpine lake tucked right up against the base of the peak's rugged north side, with snowfields still calving little chunks of ice into the water. A great repeat of one of the better short scrambles in the Carson Pass area.

Round Top sits above Carson Pass in the Mokelumne Wilderness, and the approach is one of the best around — past Winnemucca Lake and Round Top Lake, with wildflowers and dark volcanic peaks the whole way in. The final push to the summit turns into a genuine scramble, hands-on-rock for the last few hundred feet to the top.

The wind at the summit had other plans for me — it caught my hat and sent it tumbling down the rock just below the top. I had to climb back down a little ways to chase it before it disappeared for good. Got it back, and the view from up there made the detour worth it: Carson Pass, the Sierra crest, and the Tahoe basin all laid out at once.