Ptarmigan Ridge — Friday, Sep. 26, 2025

We did an overnight at Ptarmigan Ridge 9/26-9/27. Parking lot not crowded when we arrived at about 10:00, but it was a dark and very foggy day. We had planned to camp at Goat Lake but missed the turnoff because of poor visibility and ended up camping near a snow patch at the base of Coleman Pinnacle (the turnoff appears to be about 1.1 mi east of Camp Kiser, directly south of Coleman Pinnacle there is a footpath that’s visible in good conditions, but it is not prominent). We melted snow for water as the closest stream was about 1 mile RT from our site, just shy of Camp Kiser. Our campsite was shielded from wind by a patch of trees, which was nice, and would have had great views of Baker if the weather cooperated. We spoke to other campers who stayed at Kiser and Goat Lake and each said the wind at their sites was not fun. The trail was not crowded and we had one other group of two camp with us.

Path can get obscured at times, especially if foggy. Handful of steep and narrow parts and a few times where footing can slip. Trail not crowded Friday, more crowded Saturday, and very crowded on part of trail shared with chain lakes. Fail colors were gorgeous.