The plus side of the late snow melt: the wildflowers!! Absolutely epic! Beyond fantastic for late July! The downside of the late snow melt: the mosquitos! Also epic, and not in a good way.
The snow patches are all melted, the trail is in great shape (a little dusty in the lower sections), and all major intersections have signs. There’s plenty of water, and all stream crossings are easily managed. There wasn’t any smoke (yet! fingers crossed!), so we had amazing views of Mt. Rainier, Glacier Peak, and all the epic mountains in between. The road would be navigable with a sedan if you knew what you were doing.
Honestly though, the gorgeous alpine meadows and stunning views more than make up for the bugs. And if you’re prepared (ie long pants/sleeves and bug nets) camping at the lakes would definitely be tolerable. Everyone apparently flocks to this hike during larch season (as they should, I’m definitely coming back), but we experienced blissful solitude the whole way. I’d definitely recommend this hike, bugs and all, during wildflower season!
We did this as an epic day hike to escape the July heat wave: 23.5 miles, just shy of ten hours total.
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