West Fork Foss River and Lakes, East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley & Alpine Lakes High Route — Tuesday, Jul. 1, 2025

We set out to do the Alpine Lakes High Route as a multi-day backpacking trip starting July 1. We shuttled on the front end with an old mountain bike, so we were able to leave the car at the Necklace Valley Trailhead without much additional effort. 

West Fork Foss trail is in great shape, save for one very large downed tree other hikers have mentioned. It is easy to climb over, even with packs—just look for the foot and handholds carved into the trunk towards the downhill side of the trail. 

We saw our first snow patch at Little Heart Lake (but didn't end up having to navigate snow until after Chetwoot Lake, which is completely melted out). The trail began to peter out as we ascended to the ridge between Big Heart and Angeline and routefinding would have been a bit of a challenge without good maps and a GPX of the route. We made our way to Chetwoot and had the place to ourselves that night—in fact, we didn't see anyone for the vast majority of this trip. 

We traversed between Chetwoot and Necklace Valley the following morning. Maybe 20% of our travel was on snowfields, which were largely helpful and offered a relief from boulder-hopping. We had to be thoughtful about our entrances and exits from the snowfields but had no issues with postholing, and never needed to use the axes/crampons we'd brought along just in case. Snow was melting fast, though, and we were lucky with temperatures: cool enough to be solid, not cold enough to be scary firm.

There are ample cairns throughout this stretch that were typically helpful, though under Iron Cap peak several routes are marked by cairns which could get confusing. We climbed a bit higher than what I believe to be the standard route, crossing above an obvious cliff-band to avoid traversing a steep slope that ended in a cliff. This route was nice—no major exposure, easy and interesting travel. 

Descending from Iron Cap is an honest bushwhack, then travel got easy once we dropped closer to the valley bottom. Seems to be a fairly obvious footpath through here, and ample cairns. Once we hit Iron Cap Gap, we were able to consistently follow an obvious trail.

Tank Lakes were maybe 50% melted out and swimmable, and there are clear, dry campsites available there. We descended into the valley (with the help of a few last snowfields) and camped among the lakes, then hiked out the next morning. Necklace Valley trail is in good shape. Maybe 5 downed trees but none that posed a big problem, and some slightly overgrown spots that might be a bother in early morning dew. Saw just a handful of hikers once we hit valley bottom. 

Bugs were bad enough throughout the trip that we were grateful for the deet and headnets we'd brought along.