Visited Tank Lakes and crossed over towards the West Fork of the Foss River as part of a six day backpacking trip from Snoqualmie Pass. After straightforward hiking on the PCT to Waptus River, we hiked up and over Dutch Miller Gap and up the Spur Trail to Williams Lake. Cairns and a faint trail led us past the La Bohn Lakes and down into the Necklace Valley (8/4/2022). Relatively little snow remained; ice axes were not necessary.

After hiking into the Necklace valley, we hiked Opal Lake to Big Heart Lake on 8/5/2022 (on the Alpine Lakes High Route mentioned on the East Fork Foss page). Most of the snow is gone and only a few short easy snow crossings remain. Ice axes did not seem necessary. The largest challenge was route-finding near Iron Cap: GPS navigation can help with sparse cairns and some zig-zagging through small cliff bands. The ridge between Chetwood Lake and Big Heart Lake is not to be underestimated. While the trail is not too hard to follow, the steep grades were a challenge at the end of a long day.

Trailhead was mostly full when we arrived around noon, probably should’ve started earlier given how hot it was though. There was broken glass at the trailhead so keep valuables out of your car. The first five miles along the river are pretty much flat and shady; couple good camping/lunch spots by the river as you go and the bugs weren’t too bad. Once you leave the forest and start climbing it gets hotter, steeper, rockier, and waay buggier. The river crossings are all pretty straightforward, doable without poles. The first few miles to Jade Lake have some pretty exposed and overgrown sections that are a pain especially when it’s hot out. It climbs pretty relentlessly up to the lake and there are a few blowdowns that took some effort to climb over. The bugs were definitely worse but still not as bad as it gets up top. Ranger had left a report noting bears (including mom and cub) on the trail and I ended up seeing a bear cub maybe six feet in front me on the trail about half a mile from Jade Lake. Bring a bear bag if you’re camping at Jade. It was buggy at the lake and saw a few campers but we kept going up. It levels out a bit past Jade and after Emerald route finding becomes tricky as there are multiple “routes” up to Tank. The rock field before Tank Lakes which you climb up is steep but navigation is really difficult given half the cairns aren’t placed on the actual trail so have maps downloaded. Bugs were horrendous on the ridge and wouldn’t let up all the way to Tank. Some snow patches but all on flat ground so easy to navigate. Tank Lakes were stunning, views were amazing but the bugs were something else. Get a mosquito head net if you don’t have one because they would swarm so badly in the evenings and morning. Couple of people camping and most camp sites were melted out with a little snow on the lakes still. It was otherworldly up there, totally worth the effort. Left the next morning around 8:30 AM and arrived at the parking lot around 2:30 PM. Took us about 7 hours to get up.

Attempted to complete whole Alpine Lakes High Route but had to stop at Tank Lakes due to heavy snow. Trail is snow-free until Opal Lake, afterwards we lost the trail for a while due to intermittent snow patches and just general horrible trail conditions because of snowmelt and overgrowth. Finding the trail wasn't incredibly rewarding because it was quickly lost to increasingly larger snow fields. We decided to simply scramble up the rocky slope until snow covered everything. The snow was very compact and easy to cross so we continued until Tank Lake. 

Although we didn't expect such heavy snow on the trail, it was still very much doable with typical backpacking gear (we didn't use microspikes) and incredibly beautiful. We highly recommend it to anyone willing to get a little bit out of their comfort zone for some unmatched solitude and views.

A Cross Country traverse that is stunningly challenging; including a fourth class scramble to Iron Cap Mountain.  Please do not attempt this route unless you have navigational skills.  Exposed with difficult route finding. Wild and rough landscape. 

Please note: found a full backpack at Chetwoot Lake.  No one arrived to claim this pack which included tent, sleeping bag and gear.  Attempted to report to Skykomish ranger station as concerned there is a missing hiker in the area?

Lost at Chetwoot lake in the same area as the unclaimed backpack:  steripen, black honda automatic key, 2 quart platypus bag.  Please call or text Laura at #206-963-5928

Lastly, the trip ended at the Necklace Valley TH finding numerous car breakins, windows smashed out, broken glass everywhere.  Maddening with the thought that there are no sacred places left. 

We did a loop starting at west fork foss trailhead, traversing from chetwoot to iron cap gap and down through necklace valley. We did not summit iron cap mountain.

What a crazy beautiful and tough trip! We started Friday night at 6:15 and camped at Copper Lake. On Saturday 8/14 we made our way up to Big Heart Lake and then over Atrium Ridge to Chetwoot. Awesome views up here with the two (Big Heart and Angeline) massive alpine lakes to either side of you. However, this portion of the trail is tough. Big steps, overgrown, hard to follow, lots of up and down. It was very slow going through here. Chetwoot made for a great lunch break swim. From chetwoot we braved the boulder field up the rock face and then around and down to iron cap lake. Iron cap lake has that nice light blue hint and still has a considerable amount of snow. We didn't want to summit iron cap so we set out to just traverse around it. It was pretty easy until we missed a turn. As we were traversing around, we should have gone lower and instead we got stuck up high. If you have AllTrails and want to do this - just ignore the part that has you summitting and instead follow the part that has you going around the mountain. It is pretty accurate. We camped just east of Iron Cap Mountain on a nice rock point overlooking Otter Lake.

On Sunday, the smoke had cleared which made for amazing views and increased morale. We continued our rock hopping traverse. All trails is pretty accurate through here still. Where we strayed from all trails is that we decided to summit the ridge above iron cap gap higher than what all trails recommended. This proved to be better terrain and much better views. Lots and lots of boulder hopping between Chetwoot and Iron Cap Gap. The views looking south towards summit chief are absolutely incredible. From here you can make your way to Tank Lake which is also jaw dropping and made for an amazing swim. Can't even describe how awesome it was up there with clear skies. 

After that we began some more boulder hopping descending down towards Jade Lake. The final descent and 5 miles through the forest through necklace valley and east fork foss were tough at this point but we finally made it back to the car around 5:30 PM on Sunday. A crazy and beautiful weekend adventure! 

If you don't want to do the traverse, go for Tank Lakes and Iron Cap Gap. It's other worldly up there on a clear day!