Gem Lake, Snow Lake — Sunday, Jul. 28, 2024

Yes this is a beautiful area, and if you don’t mind huge crowds, throngs of tourists stopping in the middle of the trail to all take the same exact photo as everyone else, people playing music on their portable speakers, you should do it. But if you like having space, peace, and moments of solitude on your hikes, don’t do this one. At least not on a nice summer day. I had already heard about how crowded this area gets, but I was hankering for a Snoqualmie area hike and after living here for over 15 years, I still hadn’t done Snow Lake. This hike earned a place in Craig Romano’s 100 Classic Hikes publication, so I also felt like it might be a bucket list hike to check off. We went on a Sunday morning, the only day we had free to hike this week. I knew an early start would be necessary to find parking. We left on the 7:05 ferry from Bainbridge and got to the trailhead at 9am. Not the earliest of starts, but as good as we could do (we work hard and need our beauty sleep). At 9am parking lot was almost full. Heading up, tons of people ahead of us, behind us, and also lots of folks coming down. Non-stop foot traffic. The weather was great, views were lovely, but we couldn’t wait to get away from the crowds. It was loud, and felt a little clostrophobic because there are not a lot of places to step off the trail, and people were passing shoulder to shoulder constantly. Once we began ascending to Gem Lake the crowds thinned a bit. Another disappointment- the trail is mostly loose rock, very unstable footing, not pleasant to hike on. I don’t mind crossing a boulder field now and then, but this was what the majority of the trail was like. Walking on loose rocks slowed down my pace quite a bit and also felt like a lot more work, while already contending with the crowds. Our dog was not a fan of the terrain either, and needed some extra encouragement to get through the rocks at times. Mosquitos were kinda bad around the lake. Sorry to give such a negative review! We still had a good day and I never regret going for a hike, but I would recommend so many different hikes besides this one, that are just as beautiful but not as overrun.