This is not a trip about the Alpine Lakes High Route. If you go to my website slowesthiker.com or follow the link, I tell the story of why we didn't do it. Though we did do a little adding on. Things to note here: the camps along the river on the way in are lovely, but you can probably expect competition on weekends. I had NO bugs there, which was shocking. The "stay right" advice on the rock scramble to Tanks is really hard to see on the way up, but you will almost instinctively end up doing it on the way down. We thought the site up on the hill at the end of the lake was the best, and the breeze keeps the bugs tamed. Though I do think bringing wag bags for this area is a necessity, and I was thankful I remembered to bring mine. Also we had fun finding the second Tank Lake, which you just need to keep going up once you make the right turn instead of heading down to the main Tank Lake. The bugs up there were next level though.  

We completed the Alpine Lakes High Route in three days two nights. The final stretch of road is a bit bumpy with potholes but passable for all vehicles. We started at the West Fork Foss River trailhead on Friday and found a parking space at 2:30 pm. There were only a few parking spaces left, but there was plenty of room to park along the side of the road. The bathroom was open and stocked with TP. 

The trail is in great shape all the way to Big Heart Lake. We reached Big Heart Lake after 5 hours 13 minutes of hiking and set up a tent. We chose a spot on the north side of the camping area, but we noted the next day that there are several great spots on the south side, further away from the toilet. 

The next morning, we packed up and started hiking at 7:45 am. Initially, the trail continued to be in great shape, but it gets more scrambly and bushwhacky after Big Heart. We tagged Atrium peak, which is a short class 3 scramble just off the trail leading to some great views. We filtered water at Chetwoot lake.

From here on out, it was boulder hopping and scrambling for quite a ways (scrambling skills and wilderness navigation ability required). We followed cairns to a certain extent, along with some GPS tracks we had downloaded on Gaia. One difficulty was the proliferation of different lines of cairns - at times it was difficult to know which cairn belonged to each line. Grippy shoes were very helpful along with poles. I would not do this route with precipitation in the forecast or any possibility of scrambling on wet rocks.

We decided not to do the "high" high route and try and tag Iron Cap peak, but instead drop down into the basin to skirt the north side of Iron Cap Lake. Just before Iron Cap Lake there is a scrambling section that involves going down dirt and heather with a dropoff below. This is a no-fall zone. We used veggie belay techniques extensively in this section, and it was easily the most nerve-wracking section of the route. It's mercifully short. On the way to Iron Cap lake there is also one small snowfield to cross, but no ice axe or spikes were needed. We filtered water at Iron Cap Lake.

The rest of the route is mostly up, with trail picking up again at Iron Cap gap. We made it to Tank Lakes and should have camped for the night there - there were many groups there swimming and having type 1 fun like normal humans. The mosquitos weren't too bad at Tank Lakes. Foolishly, we pushed onward to try to make it to Jade Lake. After Tank Lakes, there is a very loose gravelly section to descend on that was not very fun on tired legs. In fact, it was a bit treacherous. We went slowly. After this downhill section, we stopped at the next campsite we found which was near a stream and the turnoff to La Bohn Lakes. This area ended up being quite buggy. We had been scrambling for almost 12 hours, so set up our tent and quickly went to bed.

The next morning we slept in and started out on the trail at 9 am. The trail from Jade back to East Fork Foss River is in great shape, with only a few muddy sections. It's a bit overgrown in sections and I was glad I was wearing pants instead of shorts. The hike out took 4 hours 30 minutes with a break to filter water. We hitched a ride with a nice couple back to West Fork Foss Trailhead. 

All in all, this was a very scenic trip. In the future, I would definitely camp at Tank Lakes and/or do the whole loop in the clockwise direction instead, and plan in some extra time for the hike out. 

We hiked the Necklace Valley Loop / Alpine Lakes High Route over three days. We arrived at the Necklace Valley trailhead about 2pm on Friday afternoon. There were 21 cars in the parking lot, and we just squeezed in to the last open space. Bathroom was clean and well-stocked. 

Day 1 - Necklace Valley to Tank Lakes - The trail was smooth and well-maintained all the way up to Jade Lake. One big climb leading in to the lake basin slowed us down a bit, but we still made good time after our late start.  Beautiful scenery with very few bugs until we reached the lake basin - then they came out in force. After a quick stop at Jade, we continued up to Tank Lakes. The terrain became more challenging as we ascended and the dusk settled. The cairns were well-placed, but GPS or some additional navigational tool was definitely needed in this section. We arrived at Tank Lakes just as the last light was fading in the west - about 10pm. There were many parties camping at the lakes, but we were able to find an established site to set up camp. 

Day 2 - Tank Lakes to Big Heart Lake - We awoke to some moving clouds that obscured the views for a while, but we could tell that the weather was going to clear up. After a quick breakfast, we set off for what we knew would be the most challenging section of the trip. The terrain was fairly straightforward coming out of Tank Lakes, but increased in intensity as we continued toward Iron Cap Gap. GPS / route-finding skills were necessary in this section. There are cairns, but sometimes it is hard to pick them out in the midst of the boulder fields. We only got off course one time and did some bushwacking to get back to the trail. As someone who doesn't love navigating boulder fields, this section was a bit of a battle. However, the scenery and expanse of wild spaces surrounding us made it worth the discomfort. The actual crux of this section, for us, came on the spine between Angeline and Chetwoot Lakes. A couple of the trails in this section are quite exposed and a misstep or fall here could be catastrophic. We had read trip reports saying that previous hikers had underestimated the complexity of the spine and we were in the same boat. This section took us longer to navigate than we had anticipated - slightly over an hour to cover 1 mile! Once we got through that part, it was smooth sailing down to Big Heart Lake. Overall, we spent 12 hours covering the terrain on Day 2. 

Day 3 - Big Heart Lake to West Fork Foss River Trailhead - After sleeping well and late at Big Heart Lake, we started the day with a swim. The water was incredible and such a welcome change for me after those boulders! We packed up slowly and headed out of camp about noon. The West Fork Foss River trail is well-maintained and the few obstacles we encountered were easy to navigate. We made good time and drank in the views of the many lakes along the way! I don't know that I will do the High Route again this year, but I am already planning to get back up to Copper Lake and make a visit to Malachite, which we skipped this time around. We made it down to the parking lot about 6pm and started to walk on the road back to our car. Thankfully, we didn't have to walk far before another party came by and offered us a ride. We gladly accepted and made it back to the car in no time. 

Overall, if you have the necessary fitness and back country / route-finding skills, this hike is well worth the effort. Yes, there were lots of bugs in some places. Yes, it was hard and scary sometimes. But the views made it all worthwhile. 

Two-day trip clockwise round the Alpine Lakes High Route. Started at West Fork Foss trailhead so we could get the road walk over with on Day 1. Both lots had plenty of cars but we didn't actually see too many people either day on the trails! Ripe thimbleberries on the road and a few blueberries and huckleberries on the trail. Yum!

East Fork Foss trail is in good shape. The climb is a steep one up to Tank. The mosquitoes started in earnest at the stream before the exposed talus part of the climb up to Tank. There are some incorrect cairns too low on the talus part - make sure you climb up the ridge, not staying too low to the left and then having to crawl up the steep side (happened to me a few years ago and I saw the misleading cairns were still there!). Tank Lake was gorgeous and surprisingly the mosquitoes were actually not bothersome there.

The "bootpath" section of the route from Tank to Chetwood does not require technical skills, but GPS was very helpful and you will need to use basic routefinding skills. Snowfields were fine to cross - one or two you need to take proper care on. The first mile or so was pretty pleasant, but the next few miles to Chetwood were Quite Slow. Mainly due to unrelenting boulder hopping, and a bit due to getting slightly off trail and having to fight through veggies. Lots of scrambling but nothing actually sketchy. The mosquitoes were similarly unrelenting and really brought down the vibe as it was nigh impossible to move fast so they had no problem hopping on and sucking my blood. Made it to Chetwood for camp, clocking 17.39 miles and 9'52" moving time. The final 3 miles were ~1 mile/hour. Lovely toilet at Chetwood and the lake was fabulous to soak the skeeter itching away!

The bootpath not-trail continued for the first couple miles to Big Heart Lake. Not as many mosquitoes and somewhat less boulder-hopping than the day before, but still some veggie fighting and a couple short steep sections. Little Heart Lake was the perfect lunch and swim spot. Copper Lake was stunning too...all the lakes were. What a place. The trail down from Copper to Trout was brushy and rocky. Trout onwards is a cruise, and I thanked my past self for not having to do a road walk on day 2. Clocked 10.64 miles and 5'58" moving time.

All in all, a fabulous trip - perhaps more emotionally exhausting (dealing with the mosquitoes on day 1 while the route was slow) and mentally exhausting (so much thinking about boulder hopping routes) than physically, but all made up for with the stunning alpine lakes!

I've had the Alpine Lakes High Route and Mt Hinman on my list of trips to knock out at some point, so a buddy of mine and I decided to combine them into one trip and hope for the best. I knew the heat would be a factor, but I didn't realize it would impact me as much as it did! https://youtu.be/nWUSYwndlHM

We started up Necklace Valley and everything was going fine until about mile 7 when I hit the wall. I was way too hot, burning through water and electrolytes like crazy. It was a very slow grind to La Bohn Lakes but eventually we made it. Bugs were not bad all the way from Necklace Valley to La Bohn Lakes.

The next morning we woke up to some fog and a cool breeze which was a life saver for me. We went up Hinman and checked that off the list. Side note, Gaia and Caltopo show 2 different summits as the true summit, so we did both just in case.

We got back down to camp and packed up and continued the route to Chetwoot Lake for the night. Bugs started getting bad before Iron Cap Lake, and then they were horrendous at Chetwoot. Nothing was slowing them down, so good luck. The trail here was pretty well defined, but decently slow going since there is a lot of rock hopping you have to do.

The next day we trekked all the way out through West Fork Foss. Getting from Chetwoot to Big Heart Lake as a process but after that it is pretty clear sailing. Again bugs were pretty good from Big Heart all the way to the trailhead. So they seem to be in that sweet spot between Chetwoot's elevation and La Bohn.

We clocked about 33 miles and 11,200' elevation gain.