Spent the night Saturday at Upper Palisades lake. Lucked out and had the lake to myself... except for the mosquitoes, a couple chipmunks, and a very hungry marmot.
Looks like they are (thankfully) not closing 410 on the weekends for the current construction. The sign was still up indicating that the road will be under construction until 9/20 (just on the Rainier side of the Mount Rainier National Park / Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest gateway), but the road itself was completely open Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon.
Got to the Trailhead around 8:00 AM. There is no privy at the parking area; the nearest on the trail is the pit toilet at Dick Lake's camp (there is also a pit toilet at Upper Palisades Lake camp).
Bugs weren't too bad starting out, but around Clover Lake they started to pick up. As long as you were moving it wasn't terrible, but when you stopped they started to swarm. Sunday was even worse than Saturday. I tried Picaridin and promptly got bitten through the shirt I had just doused, so I pulled out the DEET instead and that seemed to at least keep them from landing on me. Also - bonus; face mask can double as means to keep swarming bugs out of your mouth!
Wildflowers are out in abundance, both in quantity and in the types. Lupine, Rainier lousewort, Columbine, Yellow Violets, Purple Violets, Alpine Lilies, a few Shooting Star on the way up to Hidden Lake, Magenta Paintbrush, a few Glacier Lilies hanging on at Brown Peak, and more! Not sure if they're at peak yet but if not it's got to be close. Also the drive up through the park is gorgeous, with so much Lupine on the side of the road you would think someone had planted it there and was tending to it!
Once it got later in the afternoon I had the entire lake to myself for the rest of the night until around 11AM Sunday morning. At one point I thought I heard something so went to check the bear pole, only to see a marmot going to town on the wildflowers across the stream. Also saw a pika on the way back to the parking lot, several frogs in various stream and lakes, and heard a couple grouse calling. And of course, there were the ever-present chipmunks.
Got up the next morning and started up the Brown Peak boot path. I didn't go as far along the boot path as AlpsDayTripper did (and detailed in this excellent report); going around the west side of Brown Peak the trail disappeared on a somewhat steep slope and while I thought I could see where it picked back up, I had already gotten some phenomenal views and I still had to pack up camp, hike out, drive back to Seattle and do laundry for the week, so I turned back.
Coming back was a bit of a slog. While there is more shade on this trail than many in the Sunrise area, there is still a lot of exposure and the trail itself is largely dusty and dry. Be sure to bring enough water (or something to filter along the trail) and sun protection! Especially for that last climb back to the parking lot. I couldn't believe the number of people I saw coming down from the parking lot as I was on my way back with no pack and no water...
In terms of social distancing, in general, getting 6 ft off trail isn't going to happen for a lot of this trail. That being said, I'd say 60% of the people I saw had a face covering they put up while passing along the trail (there were a couple large groups that were coming in as I was heading out that skewed this percentage a bit, or it would have been higher).
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