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Lake Sylvia and Lyons Lake in Desolation Wilderness, plus how to get up Pyramid Peak

Took a 3 day trip staying two nights at Lake Sylvia with side trips to Lyons Lake and an aborted attempt to bag Pyramid Peak.
The hike in is moderate. Distance is short at 5 miles, but pretty constant elevation gain from around 6800 to 8100. The trail is very scenic, and a nice mix of easy elevation gain, bits of moderate, and short stretches of steeper. We got into the Lake Sylvia area around 4pm and ran into the very nice ranger keeping tabs on people camping. We asked for camping spot recommendations and he showed us a fantastic site somewhat uphill on the south shore of the lake. Most of the sites are on the western shore; this one was totally private and has two very nice, level spots for tents.
For camping, Lake Sylvia is a better choice than Lyons Lake ... there are a number of comfortable spots 100+ ft away from the lake on the northern and western shore, and the single, fantastic site we stayed at on the southern shore.
Lyons Lake is more scenic, and better for swimming due to there being rocks down to the shore (Sylvia has grass/mud at the shoreline), and seems to attract the bulk of visitors. It's a pretty good climb up from the trail junction, and definitely requires some attention on the descent.
At Sylvia, we had one visiting party pass through our campsite -- a small group attempting a day hike round trip to Pyramid Peak. We showed them our topo and pointed out our best guess at the route to the saddle.
If you read the various articles about walking up Pyramid Peak from Lake Sylvia, they all say something like "climb to the obvious notch". Well, the notch/saddle is definitely obvious; what is not obvious is the best way to get there. The main problem with the ascent is negotiation of the talus field. Some parts of it have huge rocks, others very loose and unstable small stuff. The best path, which we found after taking a sub-optimal one, is to start from the eastern point of the lake. From wherever you are around the lake, follow the lakeside trail to the eastern point. From there, the talus field is medium sized and stable, and pretty easy to ascend and descend. The initial aim is to a grassy finger that leads the rest of the way up to the notch. This finger has a use trail on it and leads pretty straightforwardly to the notch. After that, follow the ridge line to the peak (which we didn't do).
The following photos illustrate the initial ascent and the ridge line route:
Looking Westward, back towards Lake Sylvia from the talus slope
Looking East from the shore of Lake Sylvia
Looking from the trail to Lake Lyons

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