This is kind of a brutal hike. The trail starts at the Crow Lake Trailhead. To find the trailhead, locate the outdoor potties and imagine that you are stepping out of one of the toilets. Walk straight ahead and you will find the trailhead. The trail is in good shape and there are plenty of switchbacks going up to the turnoff to Crow Creek Lake. I started at 6:30 so it was still pretty cool. Starting at the turnoff to Crow Creek Lake, the trip transformed into one of the worst hikes I have had. I have hiked this before so I know there are a lot of water crossing and the trail is steep, but this time the mosquitoes were overwhelming. Even with DEET they were in my mouth, eyes and ears. Java (my 4 legged companion) was covered by them. The good news is that the trail is easy to follow and it won't be crowded. There are 3 places where you cross a field and the trail is not very clear. My advise is to walk straight across. Pretend that there is an arrow that extends in the same direction as the trail that you entered on and you will find the trail on the other side (helps to look for tell tale signs like cut logs as there are not too many of them in the mountains). The trail out of Little Crow Basin is hard to follow. There is a 3 walled shelter for horses at the basin and a sign that tells you where Trail 2000 comes in.Continue straight at the sign (don't go right) and you will be on a trail that will take you toward Basin Lake. As you go up the hill the trail cuts off to the left and a game trail goes straight. If you are like me you will follow the game trail for a ways before you come to the conclusion that it does not look "right". Once you get over "the next ridge" you should see Basin Lake off to your left. Unfortunatley there are a lot of unmarked trails at this point and you might find yourself by the lake even though you want to stay above it. It is a nice clean lake. We met 3 people there, one guy packed in with horses and the other 2 hiked from Crystal. I took the Basin Trail (987) to Union Creek. When you hike into the lake from north you can see where the Basin Trail goes over yet another ridge south of the lake.
From the lake, both the Basin trail and 2000 can be located by heading due west. The Basin Lake trail is pretty steep but for me the clouds had moved in, the mosquitoes were gone and the hike turned out to be pretty nice. Union Creek is a couple of miles down on the left. Union Creek is pretty steep where it hits the Basin Lake trail but after that it morphs into a really nice hike. Once you get the the Union Creek trailhead there is a trail (snowshoeing) that runs on the north side of 410. There is a nice wodden bridge that leads from Union Creek trail to this one. Follow that for about 3 miles and you will be back where you started.
LOTS of flowers and butterflies - and those mosquitoes.

The Union Creek Trail is in good condition, with only one or two small trees over the trail and no snow. At the end of the trail I turned right at the junction towards Basin Lake. Snow covers the ground in the Cement Basin area, and along the traverse above Basin Lake.
I camped at Basin Lake and felt the temperatures drop. In the morning it began to snow, which made a much more pretty scene, but was surprised to walk through a snow storm in mid/late June. June is perhaps the best month to hike this trail because the wildflowers are blooming and waterfalls are much more impressive (compared to summer or autumn), and the hunters aren't out in full force.

Union Creek to Falls & Mesatchee Creek Chinook Pass area

Today I was scoping out campsites for next weekend and threw in these two hikes. I didn’t see a sole on the trails today. Chinook pass is still covered in snow and only saw two skiers in Naches Loop area.

Union Creek to Falls is fantastic, smells wonderful right now, only small patches of snow at the trailhead and then nothing after that. You have to forge a log to get to otherside, which made my heart jump a little going over, and water rose quite a bit on my way back. Wildflowers are starting to poke out. I caught a rainbow in the falls. Water is really rushing over falls right now, lovely area, I didn’t do the whole loop, but I was probably pretty close. Hiked a couple of hours and turned around. For the first time ever I used my i-pod for return trip, it was nice. I usually start counting my steps, and singing was much better I discovered..

Next was Mestachee Creek
There is more snow in this area, but nothing too difficult, it’s melting fast. I was not sure of the area but read there was a falls on this side, I never did find it. But got another 2 hours or so in and didn’t see a sole or any wildlife. A few trillium in the area and 3 huge ant hills. River was gushing. Very nice day to be out. Next I am hitting Crystal Lakes. If anyone has been here, please tell me snow conditions of trail. I saw 2 cars there today so I know people are hitting it.

Note that there is road construction on Highway 410, just north of Chinook Pass. Not too much of a delay, though.

There were two other cars at the trailhead when we set out on Tuesday, and one when we came back - all waterfall tourists, so we had the rest of the trail to ourselves. Just in case, we wore our "don't shoot me" orange, but saw no evidence of hunters.

Either apparent trailhead from the parking lot will get you to the trail, but only the signed trailhead has a supply of permits.

The trail is in good shape, although quite dusty in the sun. There were just enough small creek crossings to keep the dog watered. No bugs at all. Good mix of sun and shade.

About 5-7 minutes from the trailhead you need to ford the river (ankle deep) or cross on a motley collection of logs.

In another 5 minutes, there is a turnoff on your left that takes you down to the waterfall. This trail is pretty straightforward. There is another trail in another 5 minutes that requires a good deal more trepidation, but takes you right to the waterfall pool (where it is windy and cold!). The waterfall trail leads straight off the main trail and downhill. The main trail switchbacks to your right and heads uphill.

In another 10 minutes or so (these are all slow hiker times), there's a camp on the left with a view of the biggest shelf conk I have ever seen (on a large snag to the right). At this point the trail is switchbacky and steep - it gentles out after a mile or so.

The North Fork Union Creek crossing is about two miles in. It has a nice log bridge. Our dog is fearless about these things, but some dogs might find the narrow bridge a bit alarming.* There is also a horse ford near the bridge, and a horse camp just beyond.

We camped at the first site we saw once the trail dropped back down to the creek. The site is large and easily visible from the trail, but required a fair bit of cross-country travel and blowdown limbo to reach. Lots of puffballs at the site (tasty!). Guy and dog saw an elk the next morning.

We identified lots of plants, although very few of them were in bloom, except for the occasional pipsissewa. The Oregon grapes seemed ripe, but were too tart to eat out of hand. We also saw (among other things) vanilla leaf, baldhip rose, queens cup, lupine, foam flower, twinflower, rattlesnake plantain, woodland penstemon, thimbleberry, cow parsnip (the squirrels seemed to be enjoying the seeds), whortleberry, baneberry, fringed grass of Parnassus, and several kinds of wintergreen in addition to pipsissewa -- one-sided, white-veined and pink.

*We have learned from experience to follow a strict bridge-crossing protocol when hiking with dog. First, take the dog off leash. The leash is just too dangerous on narrow bridge crossings. Next, on one-critter bridges, Person B holds the dog while Person A crosses. Person A calls the dog across the bridge and holds her. Person B then crosses the bridge. Failing this protocol, the most likely scenario is: dog runs across the bridge; Person A follows; while person A is mid-span, dog observes that Person B is not following promptly enough, so dog returns across the bridge to fetch Person B. In this process, Person A, dog or both end up in the drink. (It doesn't help that dog has no concept of how wide she is in her panniers.)