One of my favorite hikes for solitude! The road is very rough with huge potholes - we made it by going very slowly in our Outback, but would not attempt the road without high clearance. The road does not appear to have been maintained in many years. The outhouse at the trailhead is locked with a DNR sign saying it’s due to Covid and protecting public health. Unfortunately, many people have done their business and left their TP and excrement in the area near the trail head. This seems like a greater public health concern than Covid exposure from an outhouse in the middle of nowhere. Trail is in good shape and is very dry! This is usually a somewhat soggy boggy trail, but the whole area was incredibly dry. Did not see some of the bog plants I have observed in the past near the lakes. Only saw 3 different sets of people on the trail so it’s a great trail if you are looking for solitude. Though I did get a little freaked out by the guy who came out of nowhere bushwhacking down onto the trail and asking if we’d done a trail I’d never heard of. The bugs are often thick on this trail, but we weren’t bothered at all by them. Great short hike!

The Ashland Lakes Trail has been a long-time classic Western Washington hike with picturesque lakes at the end after a nice, but not too strenuous climb. It's a little rocky at the top, but washed out trails are common on the here wet side.

We decided to take this short hike remembering good days on this trail many years past. HOWEVER, as others have noted, don't think of driving up to the trailhead (Pinnacle Lakes or Boardman Lakes for that matter) without a high clearance vehicle. The pot holes are deep and steep enough to swallow a Prius whole leaving the road scattered with Toyota parts. Time for the US Forest Service to get on the stick.

On the plus side if you make the trek you avoid the crowds at Lake 22.

Similar to previous trail reports, the main issue for this trailhead is the approach via the forest roads.  It is nominally 5 miles from the mountain loop highway to the trailhead.   The road has Many, many large potholes, washouts, and overall cruddy access road.   Recommended for high clearance vehicles only.   Write your Congress representative about more money for basic maintenance for the Forest Service.  

The trail is in very good condition.   All down trees have been removed.   This is a hike along a very lush area of the western slopes.   There are hundreds of feet of raised walkways to keep you out of the soggy ground and muddy water seeps.   Most of the decking boards have been recently replaced.   Be careful, however, as a couple are broken and require you to walk along a single 2x12 plank.   A couple of the supports are not stable and the boards may shift a couple inches.   

Only three tents at Upper Ashland lakes for a WTA trail crew.   No one else was hiking on Thursday.   The first two lakes have port a potties in place for campers.   

We were looking forward to this hike, but 2 miles in, the extremely rough road ( it looked like “waves” in the road) we came upon a huge pond of water at a bend in the road. My friend was driving her husband’s pick up & we decided (We don’t give up easily) it was not passable nor safe. We had to turn around. As we made our way over to the Mt Pilchuck hike ( as plan B) we came across some forest service staff in their truck. We told them about the road & they were laughing...yes laughing. They shared with us they had to rescue a driver the day before on the same road as his transmission burned out & totaled his car! This road should be closely until repairs can be made. We need to write to, our representatives like the last reviewer said as sadly this road needs some $’s poured into it.

The kids and I took our pup, Ranger, out for (I think) his first backpacking trip and he did great!  The four of us arrived at the camping area at Lower Ashland Lake a tad before lunch and set up our tent on one of the tent platforms.  For some reason all the fire rings had been dumped in a pile over by the (nastily FULL) outhouse.   This drastically reduced the number of officially designated camping spots at Lower Ashland.  A large group of scouts arrived later in the afternoon and we were all packed in pretty tightly among the trees.  The kids LOVED having others to play with and it was a great fun trip!  Ranger did wonderfully well and only barked once through the night at a neighbor's potty run lol!  Beautiful couple of days in the woods with my cute little adventure buddies!