Upper Lena Lake, Lena Lake — Sunday, Jul. 20, 2025

I arrived at 7:50am on a cloudy summer Sunday morning to a 50-60% full lot (probably ~40 cars already parked). Was on the trail by 8am. Arrived at Lena Lake (a rocky outcropping) at about 9:30ish. Saw maybe 10 people total heading down on my way to this point.

Spent about 10 minutes there eating a snack before heading towards the upper lake. Took almost 3hrs to get to the upper lake. Miles 4.5-6.5 were brutal for me. It wasn't the steepness, but the big steps one had to take to get up the rocks. I'm glad I had poles with me (and long-ish legs). 😅 I didn't see anyone on the upper trail until about half a mile from the lake.

Spent about 40ish minutes up there exploring, having snacks, etc, then headed back down. Saw maybe 10 people total on the upper lake trail on my way up and down. Maybe half were using poles and others were not.

After I got back to the junction of the upper trail and the trail to lower lake (the junction closer to the parking lot) I started to see more people. Maybe 30+ people either heading up or down. Took about 3.5hrs total to get to the parking lot, all the way from the upper lake. Lot was maybe a 3rd full by this point.

All in all, with breaks & exploring at the lakes, my Garmin says 8h 52min, 14.64mi, 4,449ft elevation gain.

A recent trip report mentioned the women's bathroom door by the parking lot wouldn't shut. If you tug hard on the door, it will. And then push hard to exit. TP was stocked recently, it seemed. Otherwise, I agree with other recent trip reports - bugs were plentiful, but if you have bug spray, that helps a lot. Trail conditions on the lower lake trail were great, wide, some rocks and roots, but also fairly smooth. When the trail passes from the national forest to the national park, it seems to change quite a bit - narrow, overgrown, rocky. Stream/creek/waterfall crossings were all doable with goretex shoes on the upper lake trail. I didn't bother with the log "bridges", except for 1-2 of them.