Lake Virginia (not to be confused with Virginia Lakes) is right on the John Muir Trail. It drains into Cascade Valley. We get to see Cascade Valley on that steep climb from Red’s Meadow to Duck Lakes / Duck Pass, but you are always hiking above the valley.

Every alpine lake is beautiful in some way, but Lake Virginia is grand. It is one of the bigger lakes I have seen so far and plenty of space around to camp and relax. This is a destination by itself. As you might realize from my previous few posts, we were running away from rain and could not spend much time here.

We saw an ultra marathoner run this as a one day hike from Mammoth Lakes, but this is one of those you have to earn the view.