We did this as a two car hike. Hiked in to Heart Lake via Lily Basin and out via Angry Mt.
ROAD CONDITIONS:
Drove one car to Angry Mt. Trailhead. The road up here is mostly passable except one large full road width ditch. My friends Outback made it, only getting stuck once. There was a lower clearance Subaru up there (impressive driving if that was you!) so it can be passed. My Crosstrek made it but I was more hesitant speeding over the gap and got stuck twice. New car worries! The road to Lily Basin trail was completely passable without concern.
TRAIL CONDITIONS:
LILY BASIN TRAIL is the far more utilized trail to access Heart Lake. It was pretty trail, a little time in the trees, open views of Rainier regularly throughout, a couple meadow areas with wildflowers in all their glory, and a scree field that was short and easily crossed. I will say water sources were limited through the middle half of the hike and since it was such a hot day I did get pretty low on water as we approached the next water source. Not a huge concern of running out but something to be aware of, especially on a hot, late-ish season day. My Gaia app showed a gain of just over 2000ft and it was gradual throughout the 7.1 miles hiked.
THE JUNCTION of the Lily Basin:Heart Lake:Angry Mt trails was the most beautiful part of this hike. Surrounded by the trifecta of Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens made great 360 views. On the way out there was less haze and Hood peeked her top out too!
HEART LAKE TRAIL was a gradual decline. One thing to note is you will hit a junction in that trail. One way goes the to the top (bumps of the heart) which leads to 2-3 exposed camp sites in the meadow. The other doesn't initially look like it goes anywhere but actually gets you to the point of Heart Lake where there are a couple more campsites tucked back in the trees. Given the heat we welcomed the trees with peek-a-boo views of the basin and very close/easy access to the lake. *There is NO trail that connects the top and bottom of the lake without bushwhacking or climbing back up the trial.
HEART LAKE is somewhat unimpressive as a lake. The best view of the lake is from above if you wish to appreciate the shape and colors. At lakeside you'll find a shallow, warm, silty lake. My hiking buddy had a blast watching and trying to catch the salamanders that live in the bottom. The bugs were not overwhelming but biting flies, no see-ums, and gnats were an overall annoyance. My friends went on a day hike (continuing along the Heart Lake trail to the next ridge) on Tuesday which I chose not to do as my dog was seeming to have flared an old back injury on the way in. She chose to mostly lay out in the grass among the flowers,undisturbed by the bugs, but I couldn't tolerate them and had to seek shelter in my tent for most the days (thank God for mesh walled tents and good basin views). Our dinner spot on a ridge, overlooking the peaks looking toward Adams was fantastic.
ANGRY MT TRAIL was in someways my favorite of the two entry trails. Once you climb back up to the junction an admire the view again you'll hike along the ridge for a period of time before dropping in to the trees (a welcomed relief on another hot day). We took a pause on cluster of boulders to have admire the view. Unbeknownst to us this was likely the home of a marmot we were watching below and he/she wanted to get back so came running up the hill toward and under us. Definitely the closest I've been to one, which was fun to watch, but we left fairly quickly to avoid any more disturbance to it. Once in the trees (at about 4-4.5mi) you begin the descent down. From there it's a pretty steady decline out (~4000 loss in ~5mi per Gaia). Overall the trail was easily found/navigated but definitely more narrow and overgrown in areas than other trails and there were a couple of downed trees to crawl over or under. Fell once trying to get over one but it was more hiker error than being exceptionally hard to get over. There are LITTLE TO NO water sources on this trail so plan ahead in this regard.
The general consensus of the group is we preferred the Angry Mt trail but both had their perks.
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