Heart Lake via Lily Basin Trail — Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

Departed the Lily Basin Horse trailhead on Thursday about 1:20pm.  The trail is is in excellent condition.  There is one large downed tree about 2 miles in but is easily navigated around (or hopped over for the more limber).  Quite a few Huckleberries along this portion of the trail.  You're in the shade for most of the way until about the 4.5 mile mark. As mentioned in the Trail Description the washout at about the 5 mile mark is pretty much the only place where you need to watch your step (especially with a pack on).  On the plus side it's a good place to get water if you're running short.  When you start heading down at the Angry Mountain Trail junction the trail is a bit loose and sandy for the first 50-80 ft.

There are good camping spots at both ends of the lake although the ones at the North end (the wider end) are generally more desirable (more room to spread out).  There were a huge number of wild blueberries heading down to the creek just East of the North end camp sites.  The bugs at Heart Lake were mostly flies.  A little annoying at times but not too bad.  Hardly any mosquitos.  We saw a heard of mountain goats up around Johnson Peak Saturday early evening.

We did a day hike to Hawkeye Point and Goat Lake.  No trail issues and great views.  Goat Lake is like a small village.  Was hard to tell how many people were actually camped there since a lot of them were on day hikes but I'd have to guess it was over 50.  It is really scenic but if you're looking for a bit of solitude it's not the place to go.  At Heart Lake there was only one group of 2 at the lake when we arrived on Thursday.  On Saturday there were probably about 7 groups at the North end and around 3 at the South end.  As with most popular areas they start to fill up on the weekends.  Looked like just about everyone was departing Sunday morning.