Hike to Lila lake. Trail is rocky and rooty, but in good enough shape. Lots of berries, delicious. Colors are changing, but not fully there yet. Lots of backpackers. Mostly going to Rachel and Rampart lakes.

What a gorgeous hike, but boy do you have to earn the view! I planned a one night backpack trip to the Rachel Lake/Rampart Lakes area. I was nervous about backpacking on a weekend on a trail close to the city (nervous about finding a spot to pitch a tent). When we arrived, around 11:00am the lot was full and cars were parked down the road. The road itself was totally fine to drive- I am a little confused about other reviews saying it is bad. If you have experience with other forest service roads in the state, this one seems totally fine.

The hike begins at a slight incline to get you warm. After about a mile it gets more flat. Most of the way up you hike along a gorgeous creek that provides many good spots for a rest or snack break/picnic. The forest is gorgeous- especially on the second day when it rained. The forest will provide you with plenty of time to soak in the views of old growth trees, song birds, fungi, small squirrels, and more.

At about the 2 mile mark, the elevation picks up. With a backpack on, this was a really tough climb. I would compare it to the old trail at Mailbox Peak (not quite as bad, but similar in that you have some big steps up on roots and rocks pretty consistently). After a little over 2 miles slugging uphill, we were relieved to see Rachel Lake. It is gorgeous and was worth the pain. We had made it up in decent time, so we decided to take a snack break at the lake and continue to Rampart Lakes in hopes of a camping spot there. I will write a separate review for Rampart Lakes, but we did find a good spot at around 3:00pm and there were still others to choose from. Keep in mind, rain was in the forecast so that may have kept the numbers of backpackers down. There were many up there, but everyone seemed to find a designated spot. Please do not camp on the meadows!

Overall, we wish we had set up camp at Rachel and left our things to go explore Rampart Lakes. I think others would disagree, Rampart is definitely more scenic, but we had to deal with crazy high winds all night and I think we would have slept better at Rachel. Plus it would have meant one less mile to hike out! In the future, if we do this again, I think we would camp at Rachel and use that as a point to explore the other nearby areas leaving our big heavy packs behind.

The road there is on gravel for the last 4 miles, but in good condition. I had no issues in a sedan.

The trailhead was very popular, I saw a lot of cars parking on the road. I was lucky though, and got a spot right at the trailhead - someone must have left right before I arrived.

The first almost 3 miles are a leisurely stroll through the forest along the creek. There are a few creek crossings, if you are careful you don't get any wet feet. Then it becomes noticeably steeper, and the trail gets more technical, with roots and rocks. There are a few misleading side trails, but you won't get lost. It took me an hour for the first part (about 2.6 miles), but almost another hour (50 minutes) until I reached Rachel Lake (another 1.2 miles). I passed a lot of backpackers on the way up, I think I saw more backpackers than day hikers.

Rachel Lake is beautiful, very blue, and cold. I saw a lot of people there. If you have run out of water, this is where you should fill up (filtered, with all the campers there).

To Lila Lake, it's another steep climb for about half a mile with switchbacks, and with great views over Rachel Lake, until the trail forks - Lila Lake to the right, Rampart Lakes to the left. The trail levels of a bit but still climbs, with more views of Rachel Lake, then through heather with plenty of delicious sweet and juicy blueberries. Then about where you spot the Lila Lake for the first time the trail descends on the final stretch, steeply at the end, to the lake. I could see a few tents set up in the distance.

The water was pretty cold, but I swam a few strokes to the island to explore it.

The way back was much easier. I took a break at Rachel Lake, and briefly thought about taking another dip, but decided it was too cold.

You can see the route and more photos if you follow the Strava link.

Overnight to Lila Lake. Didn't start hiking until about 2:45pm on Friday since my companion had to wait for her spouse to get home to watch the kids and I very dumbly forgot to pack a meal for dinner so we had to detour to pick something up I could eat that night. Parking lot had plenty of spots available and the toilet was well stocked with toilet paper.

Once the trail starts to climb, there are many social trails and we got off track at least once. It is steep, and rocky and rooty so it's a challenging climb. We still made quick work of it and covered the roughly 5 miles (per Gaia GPS) to Lila Lake in 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were already several groups camped there with a few more coming in after us but one group helped us find a great spot by the lake. I was hot from the hike and considered taking a dip but it was quickly getting windy and chilly. We made dinner and were in the tent by 7:30.

We got up about 7am and slowly prepared for the day. We headed off to climb Alta Mountain a little before 9. We backtracked to where Gaia showed the trail heading up (about a half a mile from where we camped). The climb is steep at times and can be exposed if you choose the wrong route. There were a few "false summits" before we actually made it to the top. We were the first ones up there but many people followed. On the way down, we took a trail that was about three-quarters of a mile from the summit so we could get back to Lila a little faster.

Back at the lake, I took advantage of the warmer weather to swim (59°) and we relaxed awhile before packing up camp. More people were moving in for the night and our campsite was immediately snapped up.

The trail down to Rachel Lake was busy with backpackers and day hikers. We got stuck in a long line so we opted to take a break at Rachel Lake while the crowds thinned out. I took advantage of this time to swim again (59°) before we continued down. We made it back to the car about 4:40pm. The parking lot still wasn't full but there were cars parked down the road for a bit.

Specs from Gaia (roundtrip): ~13mi, 7hr 20min, 3946ft