Led a two-night backpack to Gothic Basin this past weekend. When we arrived at the trailhead on Friday there were maybe 8 cars in the parking lot, when we left on Sunday there were over 50 lined up along the sides of the road in both directions. If you want your pick of sites I would recommend starting any day but Saturday.
Friday and Sunday were sunny and dry so the rocky bits at the end of the hike were easily doable.
We took a left upon entering the basin and camped on a group site at the south end of a small pond near the edge of the basin with two of us camping on a shelf down below overlooking Weeden Lake. We spent most of the day Friday just soaking up the sun on the rocks at Foggy Lake and watching an osprey circle looking for fish.
Saturday it rained until noon and was cloudy the rest of the day so we decided to see if we could locate the old Upper Del Campo Mine - and we did! It's next to a waterfall on Weeden Creek as it drains from the basin down into Weeden Lake. Head southwest-ish from the tarn with all the sliced-up stumps in it and you'll find the old rectangular platform carved into the rock and the cliffside "trail" to the mine. The platform would make for a cool secluded campsite.
We also tried to locate Lower Del Campo Mine - look for some boards and rusted wire as you cross the outlet of a pond near the top of the hike in - but were unable to find the actual entrance after a moderate amount of bushwhacking. Maybe next time.
The Milky Way was visible Friday night which made for some good stargazing.
This was my first overnight to the basin and I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough dirt sites for a group of six so I brought extra cord in case we needed to tie off to rocks. This turned out to be completely unnecessary - there are plenty of sites especially at the southern end of the basin. Also, some of us brought Ursacks instead of bear canisters and this was also fine, there are enough decent-sized trees around the southern rim of the basin.
On the way out we spotted some two-foot-tall pinedrops near the last few switchbacks at the bottom of the trail.
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