This is one of my favorite hikes I’ve done, but I probably won’t return, simply because of the road conditions. We made it fine with our Ford Expedition in 4wd, but it was super slow, anxiety-inducing, and we felt a little sick after the 30 minutes of bumps to go the 4 miles up here. If you’ve gone to Heather Lake, the road is worse than that.

Beyond the road up, the trail is beautiful. There was lots of snow to be seen (today is Memorial Day), but none of it caused problems for the hike. The plant life was really neat. The lake itself was a cool reward after the not-steep hike.

Really enjoyed the hike itself.

As many have stated, the road is full of potholes and takes definite maneuvering.  And a large "lake" is across the road at one point.  We drive a Jeep Compass and did use our 4WD.  We took the right fork onto FS 4021  and made it approximately 1/2-3/4 of a mile before there is snow on the road and cars were parked off to the side.  We walked from there.  There is also currently a tree across the FS 4021 road prior to the next junction.  Easy to step over - but wouldn't be able to drive past it even if there was no snow.  We hiked alternately on snow and on clear road and trail making it to Beaver Plant Lake before deciding we had gone far enough.  No one else was at the lake and it was beautiful to sit out on a bench at the end of a boardwalk at the lake's edge.  Snow still covered about half of the lake.  Only 3 other people and a dog had hiked prior to us based on footprints and meeting them headed back out as we were almost to the lake.  Thankfully, we both only "postholed" once but could tell that the others had also.  Harder coming back out as it had warmed up and was slushier.  We had trail shoes on (which got soaked) and used poles for stability.  Saw skunk cabbage and 2 trillium flowers still blooming.  Will try for Ashland Lakes once the snow clears!  

Went up the forest road to check out the conditions for the trail(a scouting trip).  About 1/4 mile from the turn on to NF Road 4021 I ran into Impassable snow.  More time needed.  

On a separate note, the road up to that point was full of very deep potholes, and a ton of fun for an offroad vehicle like my Land Cruiser :-).  

Road update:  1 mi up the forest road from Mountain Loop Highway, large puddle spanning entire road.  Made it up to that point in a RAV 4, no way I could have gone further.  Note, did a 5 point turn here, and could not have done it in a bigger vehicle.  Vehicles without AWD/4WD NOT recommended.   

Gorgeous hike! Got to the trailhead at 11:15am. no cars, and we didn’t cross any other hikers on the trail at all. The road was COVERED in pot holes (filled with water) one puddle filled nearly the entire road, and was quite deep. My stock 2 door wrangler did just fine, but we had to take it pretty slow. The first half of the hike is great with a pretty wide trail, but as the ground moistens, they added wooden foot bridges for what seemed the majority of the 2nd half of the hike. The wood was VERY VERY slick, some frozen. I’m 4.5 months pregnant, and almost ate it a few times. Whenever it was possible, we still hiked through the mud on the side of the footbridge. Towards the end, and where the snow started, they added some traction grates on top of the wood, which helped a lot. Microspikes may have been helpful, but our hiking boots did the trick, just a little nerve racking.