Goat Ridge, Heart Lake via Lily Basin Trail — Friday, Sep. 5, 2014

South Cascades > Goat Rocks

We started up Goat Ridge #95 at 11:00. We veered off the main trail to visit the lookout site and the views of Mt. Rainier at Mt. Adams were stunning. As we continued on to rejoin the main trail, we went through a meadow filled with wildflowers. Once on the main trail, we lost quite a bit of elevation, to the point where we thought we were on the wrong trail. We made up for it climbing to Jordan Basin, but the amazing scenery kept us going. This wide open valley has distant views of Mt. St. Helens and interesting rock formations. The Goat Ridge trail ends in Jordan Basin; we took the Lily Basin trail #86 to the east over the ridge, and went on to Goat Lake. The lake was still half covered with snow. Backpackers were arriving by the minute as we sat watching nine mountain goats on the far side of the lake. We continued on the Lily Basin trail, enjoying glorious displays of wildflowers on the steep slopes. The trail traverses the slope, descending very slowly. The views of Goat Rocks and the valley were beautiful. We found Snowgrass flat to be an anti-climax after all we'd seen, and the trip back to the trailhead on #96 was uneventful. We were late returning - 7:00 - but did the 14 mile loop in 8 hours, just like it said in the 100 hikes book.