Final 4 miles to the trailhead was rather rough, but passable if you take it very slow. The trail was in great shape, some of the boards were slippery due to rain, so do be mindful how you walk.  The lakes were beautiful. Easy day hike. Highly recommend!

The road up to the trailhead was really rough, several pot holes filled with water. I’d  say if you do not have a high clearance vehicle you might get stuck. There isn’t much parking at the trailhead, when we arrived we parked along the side of the road.  The bathroom at the trailhead is almost overflowing. The trail to Ashland lakes was good and easy to follow, pretty muddy from all the rain. The wood planks are very slippery, watch your step. When we arrived at lower Ashland lake the water level was high, a portion of the wood planks are broken and flooded.  Great hike for a rainy day.

Yet another WET DAY!  But I was on a mission and nearly accomplished my goals for the day!  At least I learned a bit more about the area and had a grand time!  Started hiking at 7am and made it down to twin falls by 8:50am.  I’ve been there many times, so navigation was no problem.  Note: the boardwalks get slick as snot on the paths less traveled.  Once the obligatory pictures were taken, I started searching for the “loop trail” that is posted on the old signs.  I had assumed that this loop trail would go above and behind the upper falls, circling the upper falls pool.  I followed the old trail (starting after crossing Wilson Creek up behind the marked campsite with the loop trail sign) up a tad to the northwest, up over a fun slab granite face, then the trail curved back down the hill heading east and seemed to peter out on the west bank of the pool where the other group of campsites are.  The footbed of this trail is still solid, but it is now pretty much obscured by bushes.  I added a few flags.  This was a bit surprising as I expected the loop trail to head west following the cliff wall to meet up with the old forest road is then drop down to the top of the falls before circling around east to the upper waterfall viewing rock area by the basin.  Well after quite a bit more poking about, I did discover a series of old flags heading up that exact route.  Unfortunately by this time, the rain had started to fall steadily and I was reaching my turn around time.  I followed the flags up to 2550ft JUST below the road (see screen shot)!  So close, yet needed more time!  Everything was sopping wet and slippery and I was soloing it, so next I’m planning to start at the road and hopefully meet up to where I left off from above.  One other clue I noticed was that when I was enjoying the view of the upper falls at the rocky area next to the pool, I did actually notice a trace heading up to the east about half way through the view area connecting trail that would make perfect sense for the completion of that loop route!  Hmmm. . . .maybe the loop did exist like I’d originally thought after all???  I really just need to spend an overnight there and spend some more time exploring!  Beautiful little spot, one of my favorites that I make sure to visit and check in with once in a while : )  Made it back to the car by 12:30pm.  Enjoyed seeing some Rusty saxifrage too!

The drive to the trailhead is the most limiting part of this trip.  However, it seems that the first 200 ft of FR 2040 after you turn off the Mt. Loop Highway are representative of the bad sections the rest of the way to the trailhead.  We watched a couple of Subarus dance and weave their way through the potholes successfully until we turned off at FR 2041.                    

The road appears to be a limiting factor, because as we drove past the Lake 22 turnoff there were cars overflow parking along the highway;  yet at the Ashland Lakes trailhead there were only 3 other vehicles besides our Jeep, so we enjoyed the trail pretty much to ourselves.  The outhouse at the trailhead is overflowing, so best to avoid using it.     The trail is in great shape and snow free.  At the Beaver Plant lake turn off we took the .1 mile spur down to the lake.  It was well worth it!  The trail goes through the first campsite and the boardwalk follows the shore and then juts out into the lake with a great bench to sit on and listen to the cacophony of frogs.  Even more amazing was the lack of bugs. 

From there we continued to Upper Ashland lake.  The high water level around the lake was encroaching on the boardwalk and into the campsites near the waters edge.  There were no places to linger, so we continued to the lower lake. 

The water level of Lower Ashland lake is currently very high.  As a result, the trail near the southern outlet end of the lake is completely under water and a few sections have floated away.  Those sections which remain are under at least a foot of water and the boulders mentioned in the description are completely submerged.  One campsite, with two large, off the ground, tent platforms; a comfortable bench; and a fire ring, is still quite dry.  We enjoyed lunch and a quick nap before heading back – and never once had to apply bug spray during the entire hike.

An overall easy but completely saturated hike on what ended up being a pretty nice day. With all of the recent rain and snowmelt the majority of this trail was underwater. It looks like this is on what tends to be a wet hike anyways since most of it has a raised board walk but there were parts of that that were underwater that would have been knee deep had I stepped on it. That being said, when I tried to find a way around one of these spots and ended up mid shin deep in muck when I stepped on what I thought was solid but was not.

Roads were clear of snow but they were ROUGH. As soon as you leave the Mountain Loop Highway the pot holes are large and frequent. There are stretches of road that aren’t too bad but my average speed the entire way up was no more than 5-10mph and that was with my Tundra. I saw a few sedans parked along the side of the road about half way up. Not sure where their owners were, but the vehicles were far from the trailhead.

Lastly, there are several shooting pits along this forest service road. I didn’t hear anything on my way up but on the last mile or so on my way back to my truck there were lots of rounds being fired. At one point somebody was not shooting at the pit but somewhere close to the trail head. I heard 6 rounds go off that we’re obviously close, one of which was close enough that I heard the ricochet zip through the woods not to far from me. THIS IS NOT OK!!!! As a gun owner myself that likes to go into the woods every now and then I implore everybody out there to please, please PLEASE shoot responsibly and encourage everybody you know to do so as well. There is every bit as much chance one of those rounds could have hit myself or my dog as there is anything else in the woods.

By the time I got back to the trailhead there was no sign of whoever had been doing it. My truck was the only vehicle in the lot and I didn’t see any shell casings.