This was meant to be a 2-night trip, but I packed up and hiked out after first night.

The parking lot for Taylor River was over 3/4 full on a misty Sunday late morning. Pit toilet was stocked and clean, but there is no trash can so pack out your own garbage.

Saw a few groups of backpackers on their way down (despite the wet weekend!) as well as trailer runners and day hikers.

My plan was to hike up to Snoqualmie Lake and camp, and day hike up to Bear and Deer Lakes, maybe as far as Dorothy, to find some spots to sketch the next day, returning to Snoqualmie Lake for the second night. The walk up starts wide and narrows over time, becoming a single dirt track by the time you reach the climb up to Snoqualmie Lake. There are some water crossings, but none are too fast or deep to walk over. Big Creek Falls is at a wide concrete bridge a little way beyond Otter Falls and was flowing strong. The trail is sometimes quite rocky the further up you go but does not become a challenge until the last few miles up to the lake. There are several larger trees down between the Nordrum Lake junction and the climb up to Bear and Deer Lakes. The last two miles up to Snoqualmie Lake is often overgrown, muddy, and rocky (sometimes felt like climbing up a steam bed).

There were salmonberries ripening on the lower portion of trail, although heavily picked at this point. All of the higher elevation berries were still in flower or unripe.

Flowers! Creeping dogwood that became more prevalent the higher up I went, along with queen's cup/bead lily, big purple thistles, purple aster, western columbine, and a few I didn't know off the top of my head. Lots of pink coralroots popping up around the camping areas too. Looks like bear grass and fireweed will be going soon up high as well. 

There was a very light rain by the time I arrived at the lake, and between that and traipsing through wet brush, I was soaked setting up camp. Rain pants and boots might have helped, but even my jacket was saturated through. As soon as I stopped, the bugs swarmed in and did not let up. I applied picaridin and got my ThermaCell going before realizing they were mostly gnat swarms and did not seem very deterred by my anti-mosquito measures. I donned a heat net, but it was still annoying, and they were bothering my dog a lot. We spent the evening in the tent relaxing and drying off.

Campsites: There is one before you descend to the lake, on the right up in the trees. There are 3 sites down by the lake (one lakefront on the right, one on the left at the edge of the forest, and one on the right a bit further on). I found another sort-of-hidden site on the right in the trees after climbing up to see if I could get away from the bugs (did not help). I set my pack here and went to look for a running water source/the site further down I read about online. I found the trail to the last lakefront site just after the footbridges before the climb to the other lakes begins. Its steep, muddy, and overgrown, but the site is nice and has a little peninsula and a metal fire ring. I went back for my pack and set up here.

As I saw mentioned in another report, the water was strangely very warm to touch.

It sprinkled off and on all night. I'd hoped that some sun or a breeze would deter the bugs, or that maybe the higher lakes had more wind. The morning was pleasant but the bugs were still out in force, so we had a quiet tent morning before taking our hike up to Bear and Deer Lakes (in still-wet shoes and pants). There is one large tree down before the climb up, and the trail is narrow and brushy. I tried knocking water off with a trekking pole but it only succeeded in slowing down the dampness. There were some nice sites up at the other lakes, but as soon as I stopped very long, more gnats found us. I decided to turn around before going to Dorothy Lake as I didn't want to do the extra climb back and I thought I might bail and hike out if bugs hadn't improved back at camp.

They did not improve. They were finding their way in my head net as I was packing up. I didn't savor the idea of spending the whole sunny day in a tent (the dog doubly so), and figured I might as well use it walking. We headed back down around noon, stopping at Otter Falls for over an hour to eat and sketch. There were thankfully no biting bugs at Otter Falls, or most of the lower part of the trail. I noticed some campsites off trail near the river both in the Otter Falls and Snoqualmie Lake/Quartz Creek junction vicinity.

No litter, no poop bags, only 1 group playing music out of a speaker. Mostly had the trail to ourselves. Made it back to the trailhead before 5:30 pm and there were maybe 5 cars in the lot including mine. 

We're 73, 74, 76 and had no problems - the trail is very easy.  We only went as far as Otter Falls where we had lunch as we watched people climbing the rock by the Falls.  It was a beautiful day.  An unexpected crowd until we considered that it was Juneteenth so schools were out and some offices were closed.  We arrived around 8 am and there were already a half dozen cars, maybe more.

We met maybe 4 people with mountain bikes, and a couple of trail runners.  The rest were a mix of climbers with their ropes and gear; a fisherman or two; small family groups and one church youth group; all were younger than we are - which is great!  We remember being in our 50s and lamenting that all the hikers were our age or older back then.  Now, we were the oldest by maybe 10 years.

Everyone behaved themselves - including our two doodles and the other dogs we met, and the people.  The setting for the falls with its plunge pool is beautiful.

Only the very last part of the road is unpaved but even our Chrysler Pacifica minivan that can barely clear a Kleenex box, only scraped a little a couple times as I took the potholes at about 2 mph.

7 of us from the Mountaineers CHS-1 cohort headed up the trail at 7:10 on an overcast but dry Saturday morning. I-90 at I-5 was closed so we lost a little time backtracking to 520, but coming back (despite Husky graduation traffic northbound I-5 causing some congestion) we were able to take I-90 westbound without too much delay. It pays to use your GPS or look up road closures to avoid unexpected surprises.

The latrine had plenty of TP, and the parking lot was about 1/4 full. Northwest Forest Pass is required, not the Discover Pass.

By the time we returned to the parking lot at 12:15, a line of cars extended well beyond the lot; the road parking by Mailbox was INSANE. Pretty much every parking lot between Garfield Ledges and Mailbox was full. I haven't hiked on a summer weekend in over three years so I was totally shocked to see just how popular the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie has become on a Saturday morning. I'll stick to mid-week mornings from now on.

However, it didn't feel that busy as we hiked, perhaps from starting so early (by design!) We encountered a few hikers and trail runners as we made our way (at an average 2.5 mph pace throughout) to Big Creek Falls and then backtracked to Otter Falls.

The trail is in amazing condition - the very gentle grade made for brisk comfortable walking under overcast skies. Salmonberries are abundant, and bleeding hearts and astilbe (sp?) are in bloom. I suggested my students all bring gators and trekking poles for the stream crossings, but the water in all beds is low enough we had zero difficulty and I didn't use my poles.

We saw one mountain biker who said he didn't realize how rocky the trail is. Several climbers were heading in to climb the waterfall (Poppy's Peril, they called it) which was cool to watch while we had an early lunch.

On the morning (4:11 moving time with 35 minutes at the lake) we heard 18 bird species including all four thrushes, a hairy woodpecker, several warblers and a pileated woodpecker among them, as well as a large number of Pacific wrens serenading us.

I was excited to check out the brand-new trail up to Otter Falls. In a word? WOW. While it looks like it will take a while for nature to reclaim all the wood that's been removed, the trail is in A-MA-ZING shape and MANY thanks for the multiple weeks and hours of trail work that must have been spent creating that gently-graded slope. I don't think I've seen fresh "blue granite" before from rocks that have been split, quite astonishing to think of the sweat and tears that went into creating it. Thanks to WTA or whoever worked on it early this year, SUPERB JOB. And the LADDER STAIRS!! Brilliant!! Bravo!

We had the lake to ourselves (except for a pair of climbers) between 950-1025 once 5 people/1 dog headed out. We saw 12-15 dogs on the morning, maybe 35-40 people, 1 biker, but the large number of cars indicated there may have been many more enjoying off-shoot trails all along the path. 

All in all a highly enjoyable outing made even better because I was expecting a 1.5-2 mph pace and everyone was totally comfortable at 2.5 mph. That meant getting back and having a half day to do other things. Bonus!

Did an evening hike out to the falls- as always the trail was in great condition. They’ve clearly done some serious work building a more official trail up to the falls at the end, which has left that slope a bit torn up, but it’s definitely for the better

The jackabs (we all know who) that bolted into a pristine deep wilderness feature should be charged with vandalism.

Nobody cares about infinite bliss or quartz because they're out sight, but now I have to watch a bunch of scoobies that can't place protection ruining the serenity and scenery.

Hopefully the forest service saves us and cuts the bolts like infinite bliss.