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Could somebody advise on the quickest/easiest way to get from East of Italy Pass to Royce Lakes? Below is an annotated image to better illustrate my question.

If possible, I'd like to camp somewhere between Honeymoon Lakes and Italy Pass. From here, I'd like to go straight to Royce Lakes (red line). Is the terrain here easily passable? It's somewhat hard to figure out from the maps I've seen.

I've read many trip reports of people heading up to Royce Lakes via Honeymoon Lakes (orange line) but this option isn't ideal for me since it requires descending 1000 feet from my campsite.

Finally - any ideas on if the camp location I chose is good? That is, are there good sites around there, the views, etc... I was hoping to position myself somewhere with easy access to both Royce Lakes and Lake Italy...

Thanks!

The red line as drawn is fine - Class 2 at best - quite east terrain. Strictly speaking, you cannot camp right on the lakes themselves of course, but the isthmus btw Feather-Royce lakes or the two Royce Lakes themselves lines you up for one of the most classic views in the entire range: the pyramid of Merriam and its famous pillar floating over the lakes.

Two weeks ago my brother was just a little south of Royce Lake. He camped near Puppet Lake. His permit indicated that camping around some of the lakes in that area is restricted to at least 500' from the water. 100' minimum from the water is the typical rule.

Here is a picture from 2012 that shows the area. Your lake indicated as 'Camp" is in lower right in this photo... Going up through the lower left saddle from Honeymoon lake a common route to Royce lakes and is easy class 2.

jmcc, thanks for uploading that photo. It covers exactly the area I was interested in - most of what I annotated on the map. And from a great vantage point.

It looks like if I choose to hike via the red line, I will have to ascend several hundred feet higher than if I take the orange line route. I was hoping to camp closer to Italy pass, but based on this, looks like it might make sense for me to set up camp at honeymoon lake so that I can access Royce lakes without too much unneccessary gain.

There is a lake below your indicated camp site just off the Italy Pass trail that has some very nice camping spots.

Here's a view from Four Gables (from last Saturday; those clouds to the north delivered snow a few hours later). Not as useful as jmcc's but maybe of some use (you can pick out a sliver of one of the Royce Lakes foreground of Royce Pk toward the left), and even if not navigation-worthy should give you confidence that you're headed into a beautiful area.