Lovely day in the Teanaway. Arrived at 9am to a mostly full parking lot at the Esmeralda Basin TH. Folks must have been going to Ingalls, I only passed three parties during the hike. Trail is in great condition, perfect temps for hiking and blue clear skies. It was about 40 degrees when I started and never felt hot even in the exposed section. Lake Ann is small and shallow, more of a tarn really. I’m sure it’s a very pretty spot when the larches turn! I saw a shrew or vole swimming and diving among the rocks, it was pretty neat! Wasn’t able to get a clear pic of it unfortunately. Water sources in the basin flowing nicely. No water between the junction with Lake Ann and the lake itself.

Short note because this is already our 3rd time up this year. 

The road in has been graded and there are no potholes. THANK YOU!! Please don't drive like maniacs just because you think you can and destroy it. It is a thing of beauty at the moment. Sincerely, appreciate it.

Wildflowers are mostly past peak but there are still the later lingering ones hanging around. Quite a few paintbrushes. 

Bugs weren't bad at the lake, aside from some crazy flying grasshopper things that were extremely loud. I don't remember them from before. They don't bite or anything, they are just everywhere. Bees kept landing on me but nothing stung me. The only mosquito bites I got were on the way out, by the creek just above the parking lot, when Daisy got a drink.

We had the lake to ourselves. I packed for three nights but it's a long story... we ended up only staying one. I am not happy to be home. This morning's sunrise was incredible though. Nice inversion. 👌

Hiked Esmeralda Basin to Lake Ann and stayed there 2 nights. Beautiful wild flowers and meadows, the mountain views are lovely and great to jump in the lake. Steep descent down trail to lake, glad to have poles. Resident mountain goat hanging around the lake and camp site each night, marmots in meadow early morning & evening. Great weekend.

Spent two nights out at Lake Ann starting on July 4th. We arrived at the trailhead at 1:30pm and the parking lot was almost full. Toilet was out of TP. Encountered a few parties on the trail heading up to Esmerelda Basin. The trail is in good condition - a few water crossings, but nothing too difficult. I hiked in trail runners and stayed dry. Poles helped with crossings and the scrabbly rock on the way down to Lake Ann. The hike is quite exposed, so keep that mind for the hotter summer days. The wildflowers are popping right now. 

We found a lovely campsite on the edge of the lake. None of the established campsites are particularly large. There was only one other party camped at the lake and the 2nd night we had the lake to ourselves. I couldn't believe the amount of solitude. 

Woke up on the first morning to a sighting of a mountain goat across the lake. It was joined by another goat and spent lots of time hanging around the lake in the morning. We were also entertained by a pika at our campsite and marmots. A good reminder to keep your dog under control, as there was a lot of wildlife around. We spent day 2 wandering up to Van Epps Pass - it was a lovely hike with a waterfall, partially on a jeep road (we just saw one car and two trail runners). As previous trip reports have mentioned the views of the surrounding mountains are breathtaking. We returned to Lake Ann in the afternoon and we identified and were serenaded by Clark's Nutcrakcers and many other birds. The dog tried to nap, but the bugs were annoying! Fortunately the mosquitos were not too bad, being in the wind/sun helped, but there were a lot of black flies. 

The mountain goat made an appearance again on the 2nd morning, along with a deer, so we were up and at em early. We encountered a few parties, including mountain bikers on the hike out. All in all, a gorgeous and memorable trip. 

We arrived at the Esmeralda Basin Trailhead parking lot at 7am on the 4th of July. There were about 13 cars in the parking lot. We weren't sure how crowded it would be on a holiday, even though we were going to Lake Ann (instead of Ingalls) and knew we'd be less likely to see a lot of people.

The road to the trail head is in pretty good shape. The first five miles have more potholes and washboard than the last five miles. I actually thought the last five miles were pretty smooth; just take it slow as needed and everything will be fine. 

The Esmeralda Basin Trail is snow free and there are no major blow downs blocking the trail to contend with. There is a small section (10 yards) of snow on the way down to Lake Ann that you can walk around or on without any issues. It will be melted after this weekend. The Esmeralda trail meanders through the woods for a few miles to a set of switchbacks that go up to a junction with the Lake Ann Trail. The switchbacks up to the junction are in the sun and can be tough on a hot day. Most of the hike up to Lake Ann is in the sun, too. Prepare accordingly.

There were lots of places to stop on the trail and get some water. None of the creek or water crossings are a problem or a major concern. All of the crossings are easy to rock hop or they aren't that wide and can be walked over. 

The Lake Ann Trail up to the pass is pretty steep. There is one short section of the trail right before the pass that is mostly scree and it's a little annoying. The hike down to Lake Ann is also pretty steep, but it has a nice grade, making it easier to get down and back up. We didn't see or pass any hikers on the way up to the lake.

We got to the lake about 9:30am. Lake Ann is awesome. It doesn't look like much of a lake, especially when looking down on it from high above. Once you're at the lake, it looks and feels more like a giant pool with huge boulders. It's an amazing place. There were two groups camping at the lake. We also saw about 8 people hiking up to the lake when we were coming back down to the car. 

There is also a really cool waterfall flowing out of the lake and a beautiful panorama of dozens of mountains. The meadows around the lake were full of flowers, too. We ate sandwiches on the bank and watched a mountain goat walk down from the top of the pass to the lake and then around the lake shore and on to a boulder. Great entertainment.

We decided to start our hike back out around 11am because it was starting to get warm and we didn't want to overheat on the hike out. It took about 10 mins to hike out of the lake basin and up to the pass. That's the hardest part on the way back. Everything else is down hill. No issues. 

There were about 25-30 cars in the lot when we got back to the car at about 12:30pm. My GPS said it was 4.6 miles to the lake. We spent some time wandering around the lake and ended up covering 9.75 miles over 5 hours and 11 minutes. We spent over an hour at the lake. Glad to get a hike in before the heatwave. Stay safe out there.