The morning's hike took me through some particularly scenic terrain above the treeline. Glaciers fed little alpine lakes which eventually fed little streams and rivulets which cascaded down over the mineral-rich rock. Parker Pass has a lot of mining history; many prospectors dug mine shafts here looking for silver and gold though not much, if any was ever found. The Golden Crown Mine (the most significant) still has standing structures (abandoned since 1890) which seem out of place in a national park. I passed one of them, but it wasn't much more than a crumbling half-collapsed log cabin.