This is one of the superb outlook-points where the full sweep of Lake and encircling mountains is in full and complete view.
After a few minutes for gazing the journey is resumed, soon crossing a bridge, near which stand the remnants of the old toll-house.

On the right a foot-trail or bridle-path leads to Glen Alpine.

A few miles of fairly rapid descent and Echo is reached, 49-1/2 miles from Placerville.
The stream here, during the snow-melting season must be a dashing, roaring, sparkling mass of foam, for it is a bowlder-strewn rocky way, suggesting the wild stream it becomes when the snows melt and spring's freshets come.
_Echo to Strawberry, 7 Miles_.

The next mile and a half is a rapid descent, for elevation declines five hundred feet, ere we reach Phillips, near which, in Audrian Lake, is the chief source of the South Fork of the American River.
The Water Company that controls the flow has here tampered with primitive physiography, in that it has cut a tunnel or channel from the Echo Lakes, tapping their water supply and conveying it to Audrian Lake.

Hence strictly speaking the Echo Lakes are now the headwaters of the South Fork.
Soon we pass Hay Press Meadows, so called from the fact that hay was cut here in the old stage-coach days, baled with an old-fashioned press, and sold for $90 to $100 per ton, after being hauled to Virginia City.
Down we go into Strawberry Valley, where 42-1/2 miles from Placerville, we reach Strawberry, at 5700 feet elevation.