Mainly adding a trail report for crowd reporting!
Arrived at TH around 5:45 a.m. and found one of the last legal spots in the lot. Cars were already lined up on the short dirt road to the lot (had clearly spent the previous night there) and starting to line up on the highway.
Bathroom had plenty of TP and even hand sanitizer (what luxury!), but a line of about 25 people at the end of our hike (~11 am).
Hiked in the dark with headlamps. Most of the larches are on the west side of the pass (including a gorgeous set of switchbacks at about 3.5/4 mi in) so you don't see as much gold on an early a.m. hike, but it's worth it to be able to stop and admire the views without passing folks. Spent a good 45 min or more snacking at the top before heading back down.
Usual conga line of hikers coming up as we headed down the trail, but everyone was super friendly and just happy to be out on a beautiful day. Many off-leash dogs, but mainly under owner control (just a few roaming farrrrrr ahead) and a handful of dog poop bags that I'm sure someone was going to pick up on the way down...
Line for the vault toilet was very long (well into the parking lot) when we returned and there were a handful of illegally parked cars (including one parked perpendicular to another car's exit - hopefully they knew each other?). Huge line of cars down the highway for Cutthroat and Maple Pass, but as to be expected for larch madness weekend.
Comments