The hike to Spider Meadow was very dusty but the dust is broken up by several streams crossing the trail. Bugs were tolerable as long as you keep moving. The meadow and views are beautiful! Flowers mostly gone and the snow on the mountains getting scarce, but still an awsome hike. The trail across the meadow is overgrown and requires anyone wearing shorts to love close encounters. I hiked to the ridge at the far end of the valley and camped on the cliff overlooking the valley. Great views down to the valley and out to the mountains, especially sunset/sunrise. The wind howled all night and made for a bugless camping experience. The next day I hiked up the Spider glacier/snowfield to Spider gap and then beyond to about 1/2 way to Lyman Lake..what views! Lyman glacier is definitely glacier looking with large crevasses and wall extending into the melt pond/lake.

On the Spider glacier/snowfield I encountered the only wildlife on the trip (or should I call it the wilddead?). In the middle of the snowfield was a marmot, four leggs to the sky, not sure how he got there! On the way down the snowfield, I started to take the rock/cairn-marked way instead of the snowfield, but stopped after 1/4 of the way...the snow is much easier and more fun! - though there are spots/holes with running water underneath. Only met 4 other groups during the two days. One couple stopped me in Spider Meadow and said they were hiking to Holden village and spending 4 days out....and asked ME if they were on the right trail to Lyman lake ..where they wanted to spend the first night...scary...hope they're ok.

Dragon Feet heads to Spider Meadows on what proves to be a solid forecast for glorious weather. We opt for an ""early"" departure from the Seattle area in a futile effort to snag the best camping spot in the meadows. We leave home at 6:45 AM and are at the trailhead at 10 AM. There are already lot's of rigs at the trailhead, however some folks are headed up the Carne Mntn trail and some are climbing Mt Maude. There is also a search and rescue under way for any trace of a solo hiker lost since September 2005. We are asked to keep our eyes open for camps, gear etc. now that the snow is melting.

The trail to the meadows follows Phelps Creek on an easy grade through stands of trees and small meadows. We encountered patchy snow at about 4500', but it will surely be gone in a week or two with this hot weather.

Alas, our desired campsite is occupied, so we continued on through Spider meadows. The flowers are just starting to bloom and will be in their full glory by the end of the month. We crossed the creek at the north end and begin a fairly steep ascent up to the intersection of the Spider Gap and Phelps Basin trails. We head to spetacular Phelp's Basin and in 0.5 miles find the only ""established"" campsite unoccupied. It is a grassy knoll just next to the creek. It is just large enough for two cozy tents and the creek's furious roar muffles the sounds of snoring companions.

This campsite is perfect if you don't mind a steady cool breeze blowing down from the snowfields. Great views, no people, no bugs.

The next morning we had a warm sunshine on our tents by 8:30 AM. After a leisurly breakfast we hiked up the steep trail towards Spider Gap. When you reach the top of the cliffs above the meadows, there is a 2 or 3 tent campsite. The only problem with this site is that it's a steep haul with a full pack and there's no other place to camp if it's already occupied. But what a view!!

We hiked up the snowfield to the Gap for a panoramic view of Lyman Lake. Two of us continued a bit further and were rewarded with a view of Lyman glacier as it flowed into the valley below.

The snowfield was just steep enough in places for some fun glisading and we were back at camp after about a 6 hour RT.

The next morning, we packed up for our trip out and were surprised at the number of people packing in on a Monday. The combination of scenery and ease of access makes this a popular spot, but it never felt particularly crowded to us.

P.S. We kept our eyes open for any traces of the lost hiker, without success. A reminder to let others know your intended route, especially if you hike alone.

Hiking up to Spider Gap is like walking through a Sierra Club calendar - spectacular vistas, masses of wildflowers, views forever, gurgling creeks and relatively few people and dogs.

The trail to the meadows is level and often wide enough for a whole pack to walk side by side. Lots of shade and peek a boo views. Plenty of monkey face flowers, tiger lilies, columbine.

The meadow is humongous and filled with lupine, paint brush, anemomes, aster, cow parsnip, pearly everlasting, penstemon and more.

We camped at the fair end of the meadow and hiked up to Spider Gap in the morning. The first half of the trail is steep and rocky. The second half is on the spider glacier. There are a few tiny crevasses but nothing to worry about.

From the Gap you can see down to Lyman Lake, around to Lyman Glacier and to the surrounding peaks. There are lots of spider crawling around the rocks at the Gap.

Back down to the meadow and hit the trail home by 2:30. Back to the car around 5 pm.

FYI - The gas station next to the 59er Diner is not operational. It's 38 miles to the next gas station in Skykomish. Whoops!

The main motivation of the trip was to check out snow conditions outside of the I-90 hikes we'd been doing all spring so we thought that visiting Spider Meadows would give us the option of a pleasant destination with the option of continuing to Spider Gap for a look into the lyman lakes basin. The day was drizzly but the cloud base remained high enough to see all the surrounding peaks. Getting to Spider Meadows presented no difficulty so we continued on to the start of the permanent snowfield. The snow was soft and easy to navigate with just ski poles so we continued on up to the gap fully expecting to see the lyman lake basin covered in snow. The basin was in fact largely melted out and it looked like it would be very easy to get to Cloudy Pass. Sadly, we were only prepared for a day trip and had to turn around and head back to cars as the skies cleared and wonder what the view would be like now........:-)