The trail itself is walking through a river bed, so its all roots and rocks! Can make for a difficult time. Some areas are overgrown, there's one bridge that is collapsing so be careful on it. Tons of camp spots at Rachel Lake, so thats where I stayed overnight, too foggy to see anything at rampart. 10/10 would hike again

What a hike!

Got to trailhead a little after noon to a nearly full parking lot. The road was washboardy but did not pose any problems. 

The trail starts with a gentle climb then levels out and is mostly flat for the next 3ish miles. Almost all of the elevation gain is in the last mile or so and this is where the trail starts to become hard to follow. There were several instances where 2 or 3 trails appear viable and impossible to tell which is the 'true' trail. We heard from other hikers that they all connect so maybe it doesn't even matter in the end, but good idea to download the map beforehand and/or hike this one with a buddy. WTA says it is a 7 mile roundtrip, but our Garmin said we went 9 miles.

The lake at the top was absolutely stunning! Perfect to jump in or just dip your toes. The abundance of blueberries at the top made for an even more delicious snack break. 

We did not encounter any bugs on the trail or at the lake. 

Views never get old. Tons of sweet blueberries!!! Get em before they’re gone! No bugs thank gawrsh.  

Made it to the Alta summit for the first time. Got a little scary on the rocky ridge but was with a friend which helped.

A tale of two trails! This is a stunning trail to gorgeous alpine lakes and the PERFECT time of year to go! Bug free & beautiful!

A few notes:
-we arrived around 11:30 am on sat. Both upper and lower parking lots full. But easily found space on the side of the road
-there’s a bathroom at TH in the parking lot
-despite many cars, the trail was not busy and by the time we got to Rachel’s there were only a few people hanging out by the water
-many on the trail were backpackers and assume several groups were heading up to the ridge to the upper lakes
-as noted in the description, first part of trail through box canyon is gentle and relatively flat
-tons of small waterfalls with crystal clear water. Lots of spots to hang out by little pools
-elevation is all in one go a little over a mile up. It can feel never ending. But the reward of Rachel lake is 100% worth it!
-on the steep section there are a few alt options. Which all converge. Just keep going up!
-my friend had a pool noodle (which got lots of comments - great light weight swim option) and I had a blow up floatie. Fun to have for a nice cold swim!
- there are a few downed trees but easy to navigate.
-and despite heavy traffic - no trash on trail. Way to go everyone #LNT

Enjoy this spectacular trail!

We, a group of 5 from Mountaineers went to hike the Rachel and Rampart Lakes today.

We started the hike at around 8:45 am, and finished the entire hike in 8 hours. 10.64 miles with 2650 feet of gain.

The trail is in excellent shape, with few fallen trees. Exactly the same as last time I did last year in October.
There are a lot of berries, Thimble, Blue and Huckleberries.

The first 3 miles are flat with few stream crossings, nothing crazy!
After that, the fun begins - Climb to the Rachel lake and then another climb with a lot of switchbacks to the Rampart ridge.
once you're at the Rampart ridge, take a left to the Rampart Lakes and right to the Lila Lakes.
The trail is almost flat from here, with a lot of social trails open up near the Rampart Lakes.
Rampart are a collection of beautiful Lakes, it was much more enjoyable. a light breeze was up there which made it so refreshing.
otherwise the entire trail was too hot and humid.

The visibility was a little bad in the morning, hazy! but it got better in the afternoon.
Weirdly, we had no issues with the Bugs!
At Rampart, we heard a lot of Pikas and Marmots.
Overall, an excellent hike!

We saw many backpackers on our way down!