Great day hike. We got on the trail around 9:00, and there were only a few other people out. The temps weren't too bad and the forest paths were fairly quiet and peaceful. Lots of birds chirping and babbling brooks to enjoy. When we headed back around 10:30/11-ish it was getting very busy. Lots of noisy chatter and very little nature noises to enjoy. It was an easy trail for my 3,6, and 13 year olds- great family day excursion. But lots of people were tempting fate and wandering into the ice cave. Please utilize caution and common sense if venturing to this site with children. There was lots of water running off around the ice cave and clear sections of ice chunks that had broken off of the top and sides of the cave. Still, we could see all the way inside to the base of the mountain and the surrounding mountains were beautiful. Lots of wild flowers in bloom.

We've had a tradition of hiking to the Ice Caves every year since my kids were still riding up in a backpack. This year the trail was dry and fast all the way up. No mud holes or obstacles to report. Foot traffic on the trail was moderate, which is pretty typical for this hike; we saw everyone from infants in backpacks to toddlers to older adults. This was a first trip up for our dog, and he loved it. His only complaint seemed to be the large, black, biting flies that appeared to favor the taste of his ears over all other possible targets. As always on this hike, we encountered several other dogs; all but one were leashed and polite. Lots of ripe salmon berries and blooming wildflowers along the trail and up at the top. My kids love counting the types of flowers they can find on a hike, and they were delighted with the colors and variety they saw on this one. The ice caves themselves were much smaller than usual, and large, deep crevasses/cracks are visible from a good distance away in the upper portion of the snow field. The usual creek of runoff from the melting ice was missing. It was much hotter at the top, with less snow to cool the breeze that usually blows down from the mountain. Surprisingly, with how warm and unstable the ice obviously was, there were still close to a dozen people walking up to and in the cave while we were at the top.

A beautiful but busy Saturday on the Mountain Loop Highway/Big Four Ice Caves trail. Lovely to see so many families and people from out of town/from various parts of the world come and enjoy such a beautiful location with lots of friendly and smiling faces. However, at the same time there were some who were very rude and inconsiderate, refusing to make room on the trail, nearly forcing me off the trail multiple times when I was trying to walk past them in the opposite direction. If you are hiking on trail, please remember to be considerate to others around you; there is no reason you should be walking side by side if someone is trying to walk the other direction from you on a narrow part of the trail, and by forcing someone to walk off trail you are causing damage to the forest outside of the trail. Also, please please PLEASE remember, DO NOT GO INTO OR GET NEAR THE ICE CAVES. I was cringing at the crazy amount of people going into a very dangerous area, and there is no cellphone coverage on the Mountain Loop Highway if an accident does happen!

Short walk on very developed paths to a single rapidly melting ice cave.

Going in the middle of the week's a good time for this trail, which can get so crowded. It was a little hot, and there wasn't any snow other than the ice caves themselves to relieve it. And we didn't go into the caves, though others were. The caves are pretty big, though I'm not sure what their usual size is. Pretty sure they're not a normal size, though, given how hot this year has been. The last time I came here, years ago on the Fourth of July, the rock field was completely covered in several feet of snow. It's definitely not like that this year!