Ran the Lily Basin trail with a friend on 8/9. FR 48 was actually in great condition. There were a few large potholes, but they were spaced out quite nicely, haha. The rest of the road was dry and dusty (as expected), but in good shape. As others have noted, follow WTA's directions to the TH.

The trail itself was great - very runnable. Smooth, soft, single-track for the first 3-4 miles. A tad bit overgrown, but not too bad. Once you break out of the trees, the views get spectacular! First, Tahoma with Packwood Lake below. Crossing through the notch, the views open to the south and the topography is just stunning. Big open cirques, meadows, jagged peaks and still views of Tahoma! The trail gets rocky at times, but overall very pleasant! Once you reach the junction with the Angry Mtn trail, the trail drops about 400 ft in .5 miles to the lake. We chose, instead, to sit up top, enjoy the views, have some food and then head out the way we came. We only saw one other group of 2 backpacking - otherwise, solitude!

Just  want to warn drivers  don't follow  Google  map directions if it direct you  from W-12 turn left/right to Synder Rd, then take NF-1260,  Forest Rd-4830, finally to NF-48.  This is totally wrong. Forest Rd-4830 is not passable for any Vehicle after about 3.5 miles, we have to U-turn after drive about 3.5 miles on Forest Rd-4830, it's a narrow single lane "trail" for  vehicle to drive. (BTW, I drove a Subaru  Outback ).

You  should  follow the  instructions in the WTA,  from  W-12 direct turn left /right to NF-48.

After backpacking at Packwood Lake, I took my truck up Snyder Mountain via FR-48, passing Lily Basin trailhead. This is only a road conditions report, not the trail. The road to the trailhead is snowfree. Summiting Snyder at 4800' there was no snow, so this gives you an idea of the snowline for this trail currently, likely 5000-5500' depending on your aspect. The forest road is in very very good condition until the quarry (now shooting range). After that there is a very steep descent and ascent that I would recommend higher clearance and 4wd for. Actually the steepest section of forest road I have ever encountered, but only about 30' long. Brush along the road is not too overgrown yet.

I recommend checking out the Snyder summit, just a few miles past the trailhead. Caution here is that the road does get rougher since it is lower use, and the brush is quite overgrown so it can scrape the sides of your car. Top has a nice view point of Packwood Lake as well as Johnson Peak, Chimney Rock, Coal Creek Mountain, and Beargrass Butte.

No one was at the trailhead when I drove by, but I did see an elk meandering about.

Three-night backpack to Snowgrass Flat with dayhikes up to the PCT and over to Goat Lake. Access road is rough in spots, pretty good in others, rocky at times, but mostly just long: 17 miles going slow on rough road is a long way. But any vehicle should be able to do it (I saw a VW Van, Prius, and other sedans).

Day 1 Tuesday 8/22. Arrived parking lot at 4:00 PM on Tuesday afternoon -- over half full but lots of spaces still available. Hiked up to Snowgrass Flat then staggered farther up the Snowgrass Trail toward PCT as daylight was dwindling and found a scenic campsite along a ridge about half way up to the PCT. Campsites on this ridge are very scenic with views down into Snowgrass Flat and over to Mt Adams (sky permitting), but very windy. The ridge along the trail is mostly dry with a small muddy trickle about half-way up, but a gusher of a spring lies a couple hundred feet just below the ridge within the same drainage channel, with a beaten footpath access starting at the first viable campsite along the ridge. Snowgrass Flat was busy with lots of tents, but not overbearingly so. Snowgrass Creek is running at a trickle, but south of the flat is a better water source that probably originates from that same gusher of a spring. 

Day 2. Slept in after a late camp setup then set off (on my 65th birthday -- woo-hoo!) toward the PCT with a view to maybe climb Old Snowy, but eventually just deciding on a leisurely amble north along the PCT. Views along that stretch of the PCT are staggering, from Mt Adams to the south, Mt St Helens to the west, and eventually Rainier to the north, along with the ragged edge of the Goat Rocks, endless meadows, and the rest of the Cascade range stretching out north, south, and west.  Got as far as a large snowfield shortly before the PCT alternative trail split and decided not to further battle the wind and headed back down. PCT is completely clear, but no apparent water source between Snowgrass Trail junction and that snowfield. This snowfield appeared very easy to cross, with a well-worn boot path.

Day 3. Woke up to (unexpected) haze and smoke obscuring long-distance views and impairing air quality, so I decided on a shortish hike down and over to Goat Lake. The Goat Lake drainage is stunning, and the views from the Lily Basin Trail over to Goat Lake never fail to impress. Several tent sites along this stretch of trail offer magnificent views of the Goat Creek Drainage and the Goat Rocks above, but many of them would require a dry camp or at least a schlepping of water at this point. Otherwise, nothing notable to add from other recent trail reports, but I can attest to the tent city on the surrounding, mostly exposed, ridge below and around Goat Lake. No shade and very little wind protection. It's undeniably a beautiful little cirque lake, but not sure I would want to camp there except in calm and dry weather when no or few others are there -- which I doubt ever happens. Got back to camp by mid-afternoon. Skies cleared somewhat but that incessant wind picked up blowing dust under the rainfly and into the tent intermittently overnight. Didn't sleep much and woke up with everything inside covered in a film of dust. Yuck!

Day 4. To further enhance the ambiance of poor sleep, distant lightning flashes and thunder started around 4:30 AM, and when a few sprinkles started falling I decided to make an early morning of it and hike out early rather than have a leisurely morning. The thunderstorm was intense but remained distant, and no rain of any consequence occurred. Arrived back at trailhead around 1030 Friday morning. The carpark seemed about as full as when I had hiked out, but I surmise it filled up more by Friday night.

As noted by others, this area is extremely popular for good reason: moderate hike in to campsites, stunning scenery, and a plethora of options for basecamps, dayhikes, or longer loops.  Indeed, I saw multiple family groups with kids as young as 4.

DON'T JUST FOLLOW GOOGLE to get to the trailhead, it will send you to a locked gate on the wrong road! Follow the WTA directions carefully.

This was a terrific trail, in that it had relatively very consistent grade without much up & down, and was in the shade up until the last mile before crossing over the ridge with Angry Mountain trail. A few fallen trees across the trail but none too onerous to climb over or go around. There was still running water in Glacier Creek in Lily Basin, though owing to the shade, we made it to Heart Lake on about 2L per person. I observed about 7 miles even from the trailhead to the lake's edge on my GPS.

The bugs were a bit bad in places, especially if you stop near woods/grass and you're sweaty, but that's par for the PNW this time of year. One of our group was comfortable without a tent or bug spray, just lots of swatting; others were happy to have a tent or head net when the bugs were most active.

Heart Lake was about at capacity for camping this weekend - at least 8 distinct camps/groups, in spots ranging from the south side of the lake, to the trail junction where it goes either north or south around the lake, to the north side of the lake and into the woods on the NE side. There are only really 4 spots for groups, but several more for small groups or single tents.

The meadow north of the lake has some swampy patches and meandering creeks running through it. That said it is possible to walk right up to the water's edge and get in for a dip without getting into too much mud, and essentially everyone there took advantage of this in the hot weather.

We saw a few people on the Lily Basin trail where it continues towards Hawkeye Point, and during the night (peak Perseids weekend) we saw 2 headlamps near the point. We also saw a dozen or so goats far above us near the high point at the north end of the basin, Goat Rocks living up to its name.

We did explore down the Angry Mountain Trail a short distance, hoping to see Mt. Hood, but it was still occluded by the next ridge. I'm sure it's visible from closer to Angry Mountain.