Such a lovely trail! As others have said, the gravel road to the trailhead has a fair number of potholes, but there were cars with all types of clearance at the trailhead. There is a pit toilet at the trailhead but it was out of toilet paper.

Started our hike around 8:45am and the trailhead parking lot was full, although plenty of spots to park along the road. Trail was in great shape, just a few blowdowns that were easy to step over or go around. There are very frequent stream crossings for almost the entire trail, which was a great way for my dog to keep cool, and none of them posed any problems to cross. A couple muddy spots on the trail but nothing terrible. Great variety of wildflowers along the trail, although it didn't seem like they were overall at their peak. Also a fair amount of horse poop along the trail, particularly in the 1st mile.

We hiked up to the pass on the Esmerelda Basin trail and then up the small knoll to the south. Some really nice views here all around, and a few small patches of snow left below the trail that continues on further to the more prominent rocky peak to the south, which my dog enjoyed playing in.

We then backtracked and went up to the pass above Lake Ann. This was easily the hardest part of the trail as it was steeper & rockier than the main Esmerelda Pass trail, but we still found it quite doable. The only water source here is a small stream soon after you get on the Lake Ann trail. The views from this pass were amazing, better than at the first pass. We had lunch up here and found the bugs to be pretty annoying - a mix of mosquitos, flies, and even some wasps. There was a nice bivy spot up there to camp at.

Hike back to the car was uneventful, with again the hardest part being the Lake Ann trail. We encountered 2 mountain bikers on the Esmerelda Basin trail, and around 30 hikers, although 25 of those were one massive group that was out backpacking together. Overall it was an extremely pleasant day on the trail!

We did an overnight to Lake Ann. We arrived at the parking lot around 2:30pm and found a spot in the parking lot. There were a few open spots in the parking lot and cars parked down the road. There is a $5 day use fee in addition to the Northwest Forest Pass.

The trail is as described. There were a handful of spots that had water running over the trail and all were easy to cross by stepping on rocks or cruising through. The trail is snow free. There were two downed trees on the trail but they weren’t too big and were easy to pass. A variety of wildflowers were blooming on the entire trail.

There are a handful of established campsites at Lake Ann and one about a mile from the lake. All are near water sources. Bugs were annoying at our campsite. We hung out on the rocks on the east side of the lake before dinner and to watch sunset, and the bugs were less of an annoyance over there. We saw a mountain goat, a couple of marmots, and heard some pikas.

Road has some potholes but none are anything close to car-swallowing size. We drove a Prius. Bugs were annoying when we stopped, like at camp, and even with a decent wind they were persistent. Take a bug net if you camp.

Parked at De Roux Creek TH and hiked along the horse trail to Esmerelda TH. I can’t tell if it’s too early or too late for flowers along Esmerelda. Some Paintbrush, a few sections of Scarlet Gila and not much Shooting Star. Streams were all easy to get across.

We camped off the trail to Lake Ann and hiked up to the ridge above the lake. Later, a goat was fairly persistent about hanging around our campsite and digging around. This goat was clearly habituated to humans. You should yell and wave your arms anytime a goat gets too close. And for cryin out loud, pee 200 feet from trails, camps and water sources.

After no overnight goat encounters, we woke up and headed down from Fortune Creek Pass (lots of loose rock here) to the 4WD road up to Gallaher Head Lake (FYI, nearly every guidebook is wrong—it’s GALLAHER). That road is steep! 

For night two we set up camp along upper De Roux Creek and saw only one hiker go past. There’s one big tree on this trail and you might have to hop across a creek to get around it if you can’t crawl under it.

Glad to take the extra time and spend 3 days and 2 nights soaking up this beautiful part of Washington.

Arrived at the trail head around 10:00am. A few fallen trees on the trail but could easily navigate around them. Creeks were abundant along the trail. Clear skies and Mt. Rainier visible along with many other mountain ranges.

Got to the lake around 12:30 as we were taking our time up and stopped for a snack break. Lake Ann was completely melted off. Still some snow patches around the lake but not hard to navigate at all (one where you walk on snow for 10 feet or so) and didn’t need crampons. Saw a marmot at the lake and heard many other pikas and small animals along the trail. We hiked back to the trailhead from 1:30-3:30. No one on the trail to lake Ann but many were on their way to lake ingalls. About 8 or so cars in the parking lot.