What a great trip! Took my daughter and two of her friends for an overnight as part of an extended 16th birthday celebration. We arrived at about 9am on Friday 8/19 with several spots available in the parking lot. Ran into a very nice couple as we started the hike who were on their way down and gave us some extra info on campsites. The bridge over the creek on the trail was in place and easy to find! The trail is in excellent shape - lots of uphill as advertised but very well traveled and maintained! Thanks to the crew we saw on the way down who were hard at work fixing up the lower part of the trail!
We took the Railroad Grade trail about 2.5 miles on my garmin (sign said 2.1). Up the steep rock steps and once we it leveled out some we saw nice tent pads right along the trail as described by the couple we met. The sites started shortly after the "water" sign pointing left and trail pointing right. We found a really awesome spot with a tent pad for my daughters and a flat area rocked in tucked in some trees where I was able to set up my tent. Trail runs right next to tent pads but that just made exchanging hello's with those hiking up to climb the mountain easier. We had a pretty magical view of the glacier and the ridge.
After camp was up and we sat out some rain for an hour or so, we day hiked the lookout (about 4 mile round trip from the Railroad grade campsites). More elevation, but really beautiful and had great sun up at the lookout which was occupied by three lucky young men who said they had left the lot about 6:30am to secure the spot. They were very hospitable and let me take a look around the inside of the lookout where they had set up camp. Enjoyed hanging out on the outside walkway for a bit and then back to camp. Water is a short hike off the trail near camp, the creek is slightly above a trickle but it did the trick. Was able to get water in my gravity bag and also pump some water.
Up in the morning and headed down to a pretty steady stream of hikers, campers and climbers headed up on Sat morning. Hit the lot around 12 and found it very full with cars parked a 1/2 mile or so down the side of the road. Great overnight camp!
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