Overnight to Lila Lake. Didn't start hiking until about 2:45pm on Friday since my companion had to wait for her spouse to get home to watch the kids and I very dumbly forgot to pack a meal for dinner so we had to detour to pick something up I could eat that night. Parking lot had plenty of spots available and the toilet was well stocked with toilet paper.
Once the trail starts to climb, there are many social trails and we got off track at least once. It is steep, and rocky and rooty so it's a challenging climb. We still made quick work of it and covered the roughly 5 miles (per Gaia GPS) to Lila Lake in 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were already several groups camped there with a few more coming in after us but one group helped us find a great spot by the lake. I was hot from the hike and considered taking a dip but it was quickly getting windy and chilly. We made dinner and were in the tent by 7:30.
We got up about 7am and slowly prepared for the day. We headed off to climb Alta Mountain a little before 9. We backtracked to where Gaia showed the trail heading up (about a half a mile from where we camped). The climb is steep at times and can be exposed if you choose the wrong route. There were a few "false summits" before we actually made it to the top. We were the first ones up there but many people followed. On the way down, we took a trail that was about three-quarters of a mile from the summit so we could get back to Lila a little faster.
Back at the lake, I took advantage of the warmer weather to swim (59°) and we relaxed awhile before packing up camp. More people were moving in for the night and our campsite was immediately snapped up.
The trail down to Rachel Lake was busy with backpackers and day hikers. We got stuck in a long line so we opted to take a break at Rachel Lake while the crowds thinned out. I took advantage of this time to swim again (59°) before we continued down. We made it back to the car about 4:40pm. The parking lot still wasn't full but there were cars parked down the road for a bit.
Specs from Gaia (roundtrip): ~13mi, 7hr 20min, 3946ft
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