Hiked this loop, and a small amount of the Burroughs Mtn trail with my 2 kids ages 5 and 2. Although I was initially disappointed that it was pretty overcast that day, it was probably a blessing since the trail is so exposed. Lathered up the sunscreen and were totally fine. Trail was well maintained, for some reason it was more steep in areas than I was expecting but it looked like people of all experience levels were making it through without too much of an issue. We went counterclockwise which was lovely since the second half of the trail was pretty uncrowded and we beat most of the crowds on the first half by getting there early. We got into the park around 7:30am and I'm glad we did (despite having to leave Seattle at 5am) because there was still plenty of parking. By the time we got back to the parking lot at noon it was packed to the point of people parking illegally all over the place and I could hardly get my car out. I'm not sure if no one is monitoring the parking situation, but it could get bad if people park where ever the feel like and block people in.
The hike itself was lovely, still some wildflowers out! Almost no bugs on the first half of the hike up to frozen lake, but got a little annoying around Shadow Lake on the way back. We saw a marmot right on the trail at one point and a mountain goat up on the side of the mountain. Heard talk of bear sightings but didn't see any ourselves.
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