We this as part of a multi night backpack.
The road up is fine with some washboarding and potholes but its really dusty. The washout is pretty bad as its also on a steep uphill section making it difficult for low clearance 2 wheel drive vehicles. All of our party had 4x4 trucks or SUVs and made it through without much work.
It was very dry, hot and dusty on the trail most of the way. No water early on until you get closer to the basin.
The black flies were atrocious. I didn't notice too many mosquitos. Some giant horse flies but mostly just small black flies swarming. A friend used some plant based stuff which didn't seem to work. I used deet and it was pretty effective. They would land but take off shortly after.
There are several large trees over the trail. Some we had to crawl over, one we had to army crawl under.
The mosquitos were bad down by heart lake during the day but would vanish once the wind picked up, the sun went down, and temperatures dropped. The lake is full of salamanders which was neat.
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