Parking lot to Rachel Lake:  With 30 lb backpacks, just under 3 hours each way to/from the parking lot to Rachel Lake.  On the climb to Rachel Lake, occasional water running in the braided trail.  AllTrails or Backcountry Navigator apps are helpful, but not necessary, if you have good trail-finding skills.  Be prepared for lots of tree roots and stabby brush.

Rachel Lake to Alta Mountain (2 hrs one-way):  Small patches of snow to cross did not present a problem - no micro spikes needed.  THE VIEWS!  My favorite was being able to see the tiny trace of the PCT on Chickamin Ridge.

Add-on hike to Lila Lakes:  Maybe +20 minutes each way descending Alta Mountain.  Small patches of snow to cross did not present a problem -- no micro spikes needed.  No ice remaining.

Rachel Lake to Rampart Lakes (40 minutes one-way) and Rampart Ridge (total of 1 hr 20 mins from Rachel Lake):  Short bits of snow covering the trail.  Lakes and most campsites are free of snow.  Trail in gulley to Rampart Ridge is 80% snow-free.  Easy to cover with poles and trail shoes.

Arrived around noon & the lot was packed, but found a spot on the road near the trailhead. Snow free & the waterfalls were flowing! We clocked over 2000ft in elevation - it’s definitely a more challenging hike than I remember and not 1600ft! A lil bit of scrambling near the top. Gorgeous hike! We made it back down around 6:30p — we’re fairly quick hikers & it took us 6 hours with a pretty short lunch break. 

We got to the trailhead at 10:00am and there was still plenty of parking left (Thursday, sunny/cloud free, 70's). There was a bathroom at the trailhead that looked decent. You've got to fill out day-use/overnight permits at the trailhead, they're just the one you fill out, no restrictions or planning in advance in needed.

The first part of the trail is up hill but not too bad. After about half a mile it evens out and is a really nice walk through the forest with occasional meadows with amazing mountain views.

There's several stream crossings through here and I would recommend bringing trekking poles and an extra pair of socks, wear your waterproof shoes if you've got them.

It stays flat until about 2.5 miles in, there's a fairly large stream crossing then the trail just starts going up.

The uphill part isn't just a steep trail, it goes up rocks and roots and quite a bit of it feels like stairs. But what makes this sections either worse or better depending on who you are is the route finding.

Quite a bit of the trail is over large rocks that have no clear trail, or it just goes straight through the river. You could try to avoid just walking in a river by following the small trails along the side, but then you've got to deal with bushes hitting your legs and these small trails going in random directions. I highly recommend having a downloaded map GPS system on this trail, it is possible without because I'm pretty sure most of the offtrails die off eventually but I really wasn't sure what was trail/supposed to be trail and what wasn't. Generally when in doubt, follow the river. 

Near the top of the uphill section some snow does come in but it's only two small fields to Rachel Lake which should be gone soon. I'm not sure how snow free the camping sections are at the lake however. We tried to continue up to Rampart Lakes but didn't because the snow got worse after Rachel.

Going down was slightly easier than going up because we had learned to follow the river but we still had to check the route several times.

The people on this trail were incredibly nice which felt a little weird but it was nice. Lots of backpackers on this trail, definitely passed more backpackers than day-hikers. 

I have a video of what parts of the trail looked like.

Totals: 8.02 miles, 2,037 ft elevation (almost all within 1.5 miles), 4:26:02 total time.

A hot and sunny day.  Started at 7:35 when my breath was steaming and the car thermometer said 40 degrees. I was surprised how dry the lower third of the trail was--in past years I've walked through plenty of "ponds" and mud patches along the trail in June, but this time the flat parts were just about dry--the ascent to Rachel Lake was about average--plenty of hiking up the running watercourse, but not too bad. My son led and I think we needed to consult the GPS twice all day. Hit the very well hidden Hibox trail turnoff around one hour and Rachel Lake about 2:15 into the hike, and then upward to the ridge about 20 minutes later (pant pant). Great views but a little hazy in the distance. Some snow on the trail in intermittent patches, but nothing more than about 50 feet across and we could generally see the trail on the far side (and follow the prints of others).  Some post-holing this time of year. Oops. The higher you go, the fewer prints, of course. 

Instead of Lila Lake and its meadows, we opted for the ridge to Alta, but my son, on reaching the false summit at 4 hours, declared it far enough for him--another 20-30 minutes and about a mile more held little appeal. (Which I did about 6 years ago, so now it's been four times and I have YET to summit via the standard trail.) The mosquitoes ate us alive up on the ridge, to the point that we wrapped our legs in spare shirts when we stopped for lunch.

I usually check trail notes for seasonal weather checks, so here it is: We had a cool and damp June this year and a decent snow winter, but the trail was in good shape by July 14.  I hiked it about 3 weeks earlier about 8 years ago and there was substantial snow approaching Rachel (which was frozen around the edges 20-50 feet out) and a lot more snow above, cornices on the ridge made me opt for a descent back then, so it's hard to believe that just three weeks makes that much difference, but I guess it does.  (I also climbed Alta one September and took scouting photos of Hibox that looked perfect and clean. After a week of rain in the lowlands, I headed out just 8 days later, surprised to find Hibox entirely snowcapped and the snow at least 10" deep a few hundred feet shy of the top. Lacking gaiters and an ice axe, I opted to turn around again. Totally unprepared, but at these elevations and at the right shoulder season, a week can make a big difference. And having summitted Hibox in September after that, I totally made the right choice to bail out--not a summit I'd like to try without seeing semi-clear trail and an exposed slabby summit block one should tackle in the snow.

Back to Rachel and Alta and Rampart Ridge--beautiful as ever, decent trail conditions, but buggy.

This was our first time to Rachel Lake in almost 20 years. The first three miles were pretty straight forward and a beautiful forested walk!  We passed two crews working on cleaning up the trail on the first couple miles.  We are always grateful for the workers on the trails!  However, on the very steep last mile, it was hard to follow the trail. There were several times when we thought that maybe we had lost the trail and considered turning around.  But a day hiker coming  down told us to just follow the creek if we lose the trail (I am assuming that the creek was on the trail). ( Thank You whoever you are!) There was one stream crossing that we put our sandals on to navigate but on the return trip observed three people crossing it quite easily without getting their boots wet, so we just followed their steps and it worked out fine. There were dozens of wildflowers in bloom and we saw a Western Tanager at Rachel lake.  Wednesday night was pretty windy but it died out by evening.  Thursday morning had a slight breeze.  We only saw a few mosquitos the whole time. All together, there were only 4 parties camped at the lake as far as we could tell.