Two of us backpacked the Lily Basin Trail staying at the first site with water access at 5.1 miles.  No water prior to this point.  The trail is in great shape.  

The big "if" is if your vehicle can get over the very deep washout on the road to the TH.  It took our Subaru many attempts before finally getting up and over the large angled steep slice in the road.  A prior trip report has a good picture.  When we came out Saturday, all vehicles at the TH were 4x4s.  

The campsite at 5.1 miles is a horse site but because of the road no trailers have made it up this year - the camp had lots of old horse dung.  We also did a bit of cleaning due to messy prior campers.  

Our goal for the next day was Hawkeye Point.  We walked across one snow bridge that was 2' thick so no worries but it is melting fast in the heat.  Then we did a bit of trail finding on snow fields and snow bridges up to the cut off to the Point.  I used micro spikes in the morning but boot kicked in the afternoon.  Poles are recommended.  

Between the 5.1 mile campsite and the Hawkeye Point cut off there is Heart Lake with a large single campsite.  Very buggy but beautiful.  The cutoff to the lake is unmarked and before you see the lake.  No rivers run into the lake but several are nearby.  The next campsites are located on high overlooks with no water access other than snow fields.  

There is a steep snow patch on the Hawkeye Point trail.  You can glissade down or head to the left and angle kick the less steep section and walk up the snow on the other side.  Then its dirt the rest of the way up.  Extraordinary views of Rainier, Adams, Snowgrass Flats, Goat Lake, and Jordan Basin.  We were fortunate in that we noticed a way down the Hawkeye Point snow field to our trail and did not have to go all the way back to the cutoff and across the steeply angled fields.  We walked over several creeks under the snow fields and did a lot of probing with poles.  Post holed once so be careful.  

LOTS of bugs so bring bug clothes.  

We this as part of a multi night backpack.

The road up is fine with some washboarding and potholes but its really dusty. The washout is pretty bad as its also on a steep uphill section making it difficult for low clearance 2 wheel drive vehicles. All of our party had 4x4 trucks or SUVs and made it through without much work. 

It was very dry, hot and dusty on the trail most of the way. No water early on until you get closer to the basin.

The black flies were atrocious. I didn't notice too many mosquitos. Some giant horse flies but mostly just small black flies swarming. A friend used some plant based stuff which didn't seem to work. I used deet and it was pretty effective. They would land but take off shortly after. 

There are several large trees over the trail. Some we had to crawl over, one we had to army crawl under.

The mosquitos were bad down by heart lake during the day but would vanish once the wind picked up, the sun went down, and temperatures dropped. The lake is full of salamanders which was neat.

There is a large rut on a hill on fr48 right past the quarry, and it took my Jeep Patriot a few tries once we put it in 4w drive, but we made it. I would not try with any smaller vehicle.

We missed the trailhead because it is hard to spot, and we weren't sure the 3 cars parked were for the trail as there was cars parked periodically on the forest road. We turned around after realizing we had gone to far and went back. We started hiking around 8:30am, and for the first 2ish miles you are in dense forest, and have to climb over about 20 downed trees. Most are easy but there are a few trickier ones. Once out of the forest you won't have much shade for the rest of the hike, going along the side of the mountains. There are sections of snow, and water/mud. At one point you can see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams all in one fell swoop. There was people camped up before you head down to the lake, and we passed one guy about 2 miles in who was coming back from camping at the lake, but that was it for the trip in.

The lake was pretty swanpy, and there were a lot of bugs so we kept our visit there short. On the way back we passed around 5-6 groups.

It was a long day hike but there didn't seem to be a lot of good places to camp.

The road - As mentioned, there's a large diagonal rut on a steep incline.  If your vehicle has 4WD Low, here's your chance to finally use it.  We had a Nissan Frontier and in 4WD low there were no issues.

The trail - The first 4 miles are a nice forest climb.  The only obstacles in this section are 21 downed logs across the trail, all 12-24" diameter.  They can all be climbed or stepped over except the last one.  That's a twin falling that's easy to walk around.  After that the final 2 miles to the junction with Angry Mountain trail have increasing snow fields to cross.  The final 1/2 mile in particular is tricky as there are large snow fields across steep side slopes.  Microspikes are advised for that section.  I estimate 1-2 more weeks before that melts off sufficiently.  From Angry Mountain trail junction to Heart Lake the trail is clear.  Above Heart Lake the first 1/2 mile is clear to the bluff camp, then snow begins in earnest all the way to the pass near Hawkeye Point.  We attempted to cross it and even with microspikes, GPS, soft snow and good visibility we had to turn back at a steep snowdrift 1/4 mile from the top.  It could be August before this route is walkable.  On our retreat back to the starting point we met other hikers who described similar difficulty on the other side of that pass as well as on the PCT near Old Snowy.  Everything is melting out more slowly this year in the Goat Rocks.

The description of the road in previous trip reports is accurate - you need a high clearance vehicle to make it across a large section that's been washed out. Only one care when we arrived at 11:00AM on Friday.

The hike itself was snow free until about mile 3-4 as we were curving around the ridge on Lily Basin Trail. You are walking across steep valley/hillside on melting, slushy snow. At times, the grade was so steep and awkward - if you slipped the hillside went straight down with no trees, and nothing to stop you from dropping several hundred feet. We only had hiking boots and these sections were slow going - lots of slipping.  With the snow cover we lost the trail in several spots (we lost some time here) and were able to re-find the trail by following old footprints. Right as the trail began to curve around the ridge of Lily Basin Trail, we lost the trail and footprints. We finally found the trail after an hour of searching.

When we made it around the ridge of the Lily Basin Trail and could see Jefferson Peak - we decided to camp on the ridge d/t trail conditions being impassible without microspikes.

Views were amazing on the ridge - you could see Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Jefferson peak.

Overall, wouldn't come here again without snowgear. We saw several other parties who were prepared and were able to do this hike.