A note on the parking/road situation as it is not really clear in the description. The road is in pretty good condition up to the stream ford (smooth enough that the potholes could catch you off guard). There is a decently large pullout right before the stream ford, with room for several cars. Low-clearance vehicles may want to stop here as the road is rougher past the ford (the ford itself is not very deep). After the ford, you have two options: the obvious-looking straight-ahead route, or a narrow rocky route that veers uphill and to the right. THE RIGHT-UPHILL ROUTE LEADS TO THE TRAILHEAD (and has room for several more cars). The straight-ahead route provides more parking, in kind of an hourglass shape (please don't park in the neck of the hourglass). The confusion arises in that there is an apparent trail at the far end of the hourglass, and no indication that the Iron Bear trailhead is actually up that unimportant-looking side road. We redirected some hikers who were attempting the "hourglass trail".
We enjoyed this hike for its wildflowers and great views of the Teanaway area! For flowers, the ever-popular arrowleaf balsamroot was mostly looking pretty shriveled, but there were plenty of other lovely flowers along the trail (see AlpsDayTripper's 2023-05-30 report for an incredible list of flower observations as well as birds and butterflies!). There was some cloud cover so we could not see higher peaks e.g. Mount Stuart, but it was much appreciated on the more exposed sections of the trail. Mosquitoes were slightly annoying in the parking lot; otherwise on the trail, bugs were buzzing but not biting. The trail was in great shape.
Human-wise: we arrived around 9:45am and parked with a handful of other vehicles in the first part of the 'hourglass'. Saw a few parties on our way up, shared the summit with a few people (but spread out over several outcrops), saw several parties on our way down. Not solitude, but not crowded. Parking was fuller when we left around 2pm, but not maxed. We encountered two dirt bike parties - USFS does say the trail is closed to motorized use through June 15, but also that it might open earlier depending on conditions (but I couldn't find anything about whether this had happened). They were very polite and it only took a minute to step aside to let them pass (though much of the trail is narrow/sloped, so there aren't always great places to step aside).
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