Wow this hike is way better than advertised. A gem in plain sight of all those zipping by on HWY 20 (me until today). The reward to work ratio is off the charts.
Crowded trailhead but not too wild. Most larch seekers hit Maple Pass or Blue Lake. This hike is great with kids or your parents, bring all three generations on this one. Lots of cars with frost on them from overnighters.
Trail is very smooth. Be prepared to share the trail with lost of mountain bikers and (less) horseback riders. Open views of Hinkhouse Peak and Molar Tooth right off the bat. Forest is open for most of this hike, a classic eastern cascades feel. The sheer size of this valley and the cirques under the peaks is impressive. More than I anticipated. Soon you can see Cutthroat Peak before dipping into denser forests. You come to a split in the trail after emerging from the thicker forest. The left leads to the lake, the right to Cutthroat Pass. However the right also completes a loop with the left branch. We took the left and it leads to a really nice flat wander through a very "fairyland" feeling mixed larch/pine/fir forest. Really beautiful with some meadows and bogs. Soon you reach the lake and wow, it is gorgeous. Take it from someone who has seen a lot of lakes with cirques, this one is one of the most impressive I've ever seen. So grand! The width of it, ringed >270 deg by peaks, and the height - 3000' from lake to the top of Cutthroat peak (as tall as El Capitan). Then add in the golden larches everywhere - you have a winner. I will definitely return again. We explored a bit and found where the trail loops (love a loop over an out and back) and looped back, passing the turn off to the pass, before reconnecting to the split. The loop was definitely worth it. More popular as we hiked out, but nothing comparable to the slammed trailheads of Blue and Maple Pass we drove by on the way back home.
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