Despite the uninviting appearance of the tumbling cloud mass about the summit of the Watchman the evening of August 19 a few hardy or perhaps stubborn individuals with tightly buttoned coats ascended the slopes to the viewpoint station. Arriving on top they found themselves to be above a jumbled blanket of clouds instead of among them. On the right were the topmost crags of Hillman Peak, Llao Rock, Mt. Bailey, Mt. Thielsen and Diamond Peak; to the left all the peaks were covered but behind them the lake remained clear of clouds.

One of the most striking features of the many beautiful cloud structures was the mass between Hillman Peak and Llao Rock. Here a great blanket of clouds seemed about to pour into the crater and yet, though it moved rapidly toward the lake, the lakeward portion of the cloud mass disappeared as quickly as it drifted over the brink of the rim.

The cloud blanket was in a colder mass of swiftly moving air but when it reached the rim to pour over into the lakeward side warmer currents of air streaming up from the lake absorbed the water vapor and therefore the cloud seemed to be evaporating. Warmer air can hold, in an invisible state, more water vapor than can colder air, hence the disappearance of the cloud masses as they drifted across the rim.