What a wonderful adventure to witness the transition from summer to fall in the mountains! I hiked from the Lake Lillian / Margaret Lake trailhead to Twin Lakes and Lake Lillian, then took the bootpath up to Rampart Ridge and did the loop of the ridge, including the west peak and a visit to Rampart Lakes.
This was one of my first solo hikes and it was an epic one! The lakes are all lovely, Rampart Ridge has wonderful views, and the fall colors are already beautiful on the berry bushes. I saw marmots (one absolutely stuffing its face with sedges), pika, chipmunks, and a variety of birds including a raven cruising in circles up on the ridge. There were heaps and heaps of berries around the Twin Lakes area and a good amount on the east side of the ridge loop.
I recommend being comfortable with route-finding for this trail, as there are numerous side trails / social trails both on the way up to Lake Lillian and especially up on the ridge. I never usually use my GPS map on my phone and just load it as a backup, but I consulted it multiple times on this trip. I counted 25 people and 8 dogs on my way up to Lake Lillian, at least 5-10 people and a couple dogs at Lake Lillian each time I went by, 9 people on the Rampart Ridge bootpaths, and at least a dozen people at Rampart Lakes. The trail was in pretty good condition, although after you start descending toward Twin Lakes it becomes more rooty/rocky and the bootpath around Rampart Ridge is more technical. The road had washboards but was totally fine to drive in my Honda Fit.
I think the camping was pretty full at both Lake Lillian and Rampart Lakes, so I was surprised that no one was camping at Twin Lakes at all when I returned back by it around 5:30pm. Especially considering that you could eat SO many berries if you camped here. Another nice surprise on this hike was beautiful, full views of Mt Rainier at multiple points on the hike. If you are just hiking to Lake Lillian, you can go up the Rampart Ridge spur for just a couple minutes to get a cool view of Rainier with the lakes behind. There is not too much water in between the lakes, though there are a couple small ponds/trickles up on the ridge. I carried my filter and drank about 4L of water even though the weather was pretty cool.
CalTopo says 12 miles, 2300 ft net elevation gain and 4500 ft total elevation gain. I started around 11am and returned to my car at 7:20pm. Feel free to comment with any questions, happy trails.
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