Started up trail around 10:30. Parking was easy, plenty of spaces.
Beginning trail was marked well, some incline but not too bad. First stream crossing about 1/2 mile in, we were surprised because we’d read that most of the early streams were no longer running. After 22 streams , 6 hours and a major ending incline , and we were there. Points to note: trail gets very tricky to find around stream 20. Nothing is marked. It looks almost like a water slide before the entrance of the rocky stream. Just past the water slide rocks, the stream begins to the right, the curves to the left. At the beginning, we had to walk through the flowing water climbing up and over small logs. Once over the log jam the stream curved and the path continued off to the left. The path was not well marked and the only way we found it was because someone happened to be walking down. After that the trail was easy to follow but very steep.
At the lake, the campsite were nicely laid out. It was quite windy and there were many mosquitos. Water is easy to find as it’s a lake, and it wasn’t too busy for a mid-week trip.
Coming down two days later was quite slippery due to rain. Pretty tricky to find good foot spots, poles would have definitely been helpful.
While a beautiful destination, this hike was definitely harder and longer than anticipated. We were second time mother daughter backpackers hoping for a moderately challenging but peaceful trip. This was definitely not moderate. But the views and campsite at the end were definitely beautiful and did not disappoint.
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