[Summary (TL;DR) -- insanely popular, crazy beautiful, contrary to conventional wisdom, we recommend going CLOCKWISE from the lower Bagley Lake parking lot to maximize views. Also recommend taking side jaunts to visit the less crowded lake side/view points and additional lakes]
We were slated to overnight at Lake Anne, but the intense winds with gale force gusts led my hiking companion Tyler and I to abandon the idea and day hike the [Galena] Chain Lakes instead.
I've done nearly all the sections of the trail except from Iceberg Lake to the saddle and back down to Bagley Lake, I figure I've seen the sections from both sides and didn't feel the need to do it. Tyler is new to the area and she proposed the hike, so I was happy to go along to show off our amazing state. I gotta say wow, I was floored by the beautiful the views from the section I've not previously done and lamented how wrong I was to have skipped on that.
We followed conventional wisdom and did the hike counter-clockwise from Artist Point, but after thinking through this, we would actually recommend going clockwise from the lower Bagley Lakes parking lot: reason - you want to start going up, with the road/parking lot crossing out of the way, and end on a downhill. But the big sell is that the view is spectacular descending into Bagley Lakes (you don't get to have that view in front of you coming up).
I can't think of any other trails where the ENTIRE hike is just views, views and more views with variation of scenery from two giant sleeping volcanoes dominating the skyline to ridges and saddles and gorgeous lakes and streams. I gorged on berries the entire way and almost didn't feel hungry even though we didn't bring lunch.
Pro-tip: definitely bring lunch and have it at the saddle between Bagley Lakes and Iceberg Lake, 360 views with Baker on one side and Shuksan on the other.
Technically you can do the entire loop in just a couple of hours if you are in good shape and seriously hustle, and don't do the side jaunts, but it's sooooo amazingly gorgeous and there is so much to explore, I recommend taking the whole day (we stopped and meandered around the lakes -- spent over 7 hours and clocked 8 miles).
We arrived the evening before (Sunday before Labor Day) and the Artist Point parking lot was still a madhouse at 5 pm. There were hundreds of people gathered in various clumps nearby, many unmasked - including 2 wedding parties (* see some trail statistics in the last section below).
Despite the number of fellow hikers, Chain Lakes is still up there as one of my favorite hikes in the world.
[For WTA Trail Team]
Some trail condition notes ---
Check steps from Artist Point parking lot to Bagley Lakes attached by cable is now loose and wobbling, and a potential hazard.
The last half mile of trail down into Iceberg Lake from the saddle (from Bagley Lakes direction) have deep ruts that has caused many to reroute all over the place. There are mild tred issues sprinkle through the entire trail section north side Iceberg Lake.
Difficult navigation, insufficient signage and poorly marked camp site around Hays Lakes means lots of unofficial campsites and fire rings being made all over (including lakeside).
The first quarter mile coming out of Mazama Lake (towards Artist Point) is deeply rutted and have sections routed across many different paths, the tred needs improvement across a number of places along the path to the Ptarmigan junction.
A zipped file of an overview map indicating problem areas and some of the worst trail condition photos available here -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/19pTDDlTMO4UnaLWu99TurbE-b1qqUG5Z/view?usp=sharing
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