Well, they’re right to say it’s burly. When you hit the bridge over Madeline Creek, pull out your hiking poles! That last 2-mile stretch is where nearly 2,000 of those 3,050 feet in elevation gain are hiding. I hope Gaia wasn’t counting the number of “Are we there yet??” map checks I did.

Details:

• Road: pavement ends 5 miles from the trailhead, then starts again 4 miles later (National Park entrance). My Honda CRV did fine, but my Civic wouldn’t have made it.
• Bridge: a sign at the trailhead says there's a bridge washed out, 0.57 miles ahead. It's nothing major - easy to cross on a pile of logs, didn't even get my feet wet.
• Trail: wide and flat for 2 miles, gradual slope for 3 more. After the turnoff from the North Fork Skokomish River Trail, and especially after Madeline Creek, it was narrow, rocky, and often partially eroded. Lots of blowdowns, but nothing impassible or perplexing.
• Giants: on I-90 hikes, you often think, “Wow! That’s a huge stump.” On Olympic National Park hikes, those huge stumps are still trees.
• Lakes: pretty views, but a lot of greenish stuff growing in them. I decided not to swim.
• People: Only saw people twice after the turnoff to Flapjack Lakes (sunny Monday hike).
• Snow: tiny bit right before the lakes, and visible above the banks; none to walk on.

We arrived at the trailhead at 9 am on the Sunday of Memorial day and had no problems parking. It's an uneventful hike most of the way with surprisingly little traffic - no more than 3-4 day hikers above the Flapjacks turnoff. Maybe 4  backpackers coming down from the lakes in the morning.

The route is steady uphill after the turnoff but only very steep for a few short sections including some of the final 3/4 mile to the lakes

There are a few patches of snow near the lakes which are easy to cross - you might posthole but you won't need any kind of traction devices.

We had the lakes completely to ourselves. They are all melted out now with just some heavy bank snow on the far shore. No bugs at all. A very pretty spot, I can see why the lakes are popular. There is still a lot of snow on the slopes around the lakes so I don't think you can make it up to Gladys Divide yet, and not sure about Black and White lakes (I suspect those would be pretty snowy).

Minor snow obstacles above Black and White Lakes junction.

As others have noted, snow lingers at the lake. Some campsites available, some not. It was tight.

In a month this site will be prime time.

This is a hike with a really great payoff at the end. The view of the Sawtooth ridge is spectacular. Getting from the trailhead to the junction with the Flapjack Lakes Trail was uneventful. A couple of the waterfalls are pretty with the amount of water in them right now. The Flapjack trail was generally in good condition up to the junction with the Black & White Lakes trail. It's only half a mile from there to the lakes, but the trail gets steep and rocky and rooty for that last half mile. Encountered the first snow about halfway between the Black & White Lakes junction and Flapjack lakes. The snow was only patchy most of the way up from there, but some of the patches required careful attention due to being bridged/undercut in a few places. Most of the patches were easy to navigate. At the lakes, some of the tent sites are snow free. We found one snow free by the lower lake, in the area between the bear wire and the privy. It appeared that there were a couple of clear sites down near the water on the upper lake as well. Just a bit of challenge navigating around the lakes generally, since the snow patches were a bit deeper here. If the warm weather continues, though, I would guess that within a few weeks almost all of this snow will be gone. The isthmus between the lakes was mostly snow-free, and this is where to get the great view of the Sawtooths. We did not attempt to go up to Gladys Divide on this trip.

Lovely trail. Mostly well maintained, although there were a few spots where the trail is very narrow next to a steep drop off. The trail has snow across the trail around 1/2 mile from the lakes, which was a bit slick later in their afternoon. 1/4 mile from the lake there was significant snow that continued up to the lake. There is one snow-free campsite, but it's very soggy. Most of the area around the lake has 3 to 4 ft of snow, including to the privy. No bugs! Lake is mostly ice free.