Heart Lake via Lily Basin Trail — Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2020

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.