Rampart Ridge - Rampart Lakes, Rachel Lake & Alta Mountain — Saturday, Jul. 11, 2020

Arrived at Rachel Lake Trailhead a little before 9am on Saturday. The lot was full so had to park along the road. The road has a lot of potholes but is fine for any car.

Hiked up to Rachel Lake for lunch. There are quite a few creek crossings and the trail is essentially the creek itself at times. It can also be difficult to follow the trail in some places where people created shortcuts. After eating a quick sandwich, we continued our journey up to Rampart Lakes. The view of Rachel Lake from above was beautiful as always. There are some snow crossings up to and around the lakes, but we never put traction on. We set up camp at the second to last lake, and then set out for Alta Mountain with a much lighter load. The trail to Alta also has a few snow crossings, but it was fine in just boots. The route up Alta can feel unnerving at times, as you are hiking along the top of the ridge with drop offs on both sides. But the trail is pretty easy to follow, even with the snow.

Watch the snowfields. While pretty solid now, there are definitely areas that will collapse soon. I knocked down one small section so that no one would walk over it and accidentally fall through a few feet. 

Stayed overnight and then hiked down in the morning. A cold, windy, and rainy night, but the rain was better than expected on the way down.