Great weekend for hiking! Clear sunny weather, albeit a bit chilly and with about a foot of snow in the Necklace Valley already.
Trail conditions are great starting out from the trailhead and for basically the next 4 or 5 miles. Such lovely rolling tread. Before reaching any of the river campsites, there is a somewhat sketchy log bridge to cross that was topped by a veneer of icy snow. This might get even dicier later in the season. After hitting the first camp site, there's a nice log bridge with a railing over the main part of the river. Turn left immediately and follow a short little bit of trail to a further campsite and an informal log crossing on your right to the rock fall on the far side. A curve of rocks points the way onto the log. Look for the cairns up the slope on the far side, and follow them to a switchback in the rocks after which the trail is clearer. From here the trail goes up up up to the Necklace Valley. The rocks and roots were often slick with ice, snow, leaves, or all three, but it was manageable with care. Snow was more present and thicker the higher we went, with about a foot or so in the Necklace Valley itself. Finding the trail at times was a little difficult, especially after Jade Lake. A map was handy. It looked like we were the first ones up there since the recent snow. The distances are short though, and there's only a few ways with terrain that makes any sense.
We camped overnight between Jade and Emerald lakes (closer to Emerald) on a nice flat knoll above the trail. The next day we walked to the end of Opal Lake and explored a bit past the end of the trail but decided to nix a scramble up to Tank Lakes this trip.
Lovely place, very quiet and isolated up there right now.
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