Beautiful!! Some parts had a snow but not to difficult to cross. All worth it.

We hiked up to Clara and Marion Lake today. The trail was in pretty good condition but there was a lot of mud and once you got up there were a couple snow fields. Lake Marion was thawed but Lake Clara was still partially frozen over. It was beautiful with the snow back splash! I didn't expect there to be that much snow up there. The whole hike only took us about 1.5 hours. Fun day hike!

The trip up to Clara and Marion lakes was a quiet and beautiful one! There were three other cars at the trailhead but I did not run into anyone on the trail. There were a few bugs, particularly around the lakes and other standing water near the trail, but they were not too bad yet. The trail is in good condition, slightly rocky in some sections and a few fall downs but overall good. As said by others, the majority of the elevation gain comes early on in on the trail. It took about two hours roundtrip including a lunch break for a nice short solo hike. Take note that there have been reports of people breaking into vehicles parked along squilchuck road, so be sure to be cautious when leaving valuables behind.

The trail is steep in places gaining 900 feet to Clara Lake. The trail was in good condition except for a few very slick areas from the recent rains. Large and beautiful golden western larches, Douglas firs, and Ponderosa Pines were seen along the trail. There are a few times when you have a choice of trails. For example, as we were nearing the junction with the Pipeline Trail we had 2 choices both of which took you to the main trail. We chose the more gradual approach. Larches are growing out of rocks and scree surrounding and above the lakes. Marion Lake is reached in about 15 minutes after a short climb from Clara followed by a slight elevation loss. There are many possibilities for roaming the rocks and scree in the area to enjoy the many beautiful western larch. Many varieties of fungi were seen. Total elevation gain was about 1100 feet.

I didn't realize that there was such a short larch hike that could offer so much solitude. I squeezed in two short hikes on Sunday, and used up the available daylight to enjoy this one. If I had started earlier, I still would've gotten back to the car at the same time. There are some good options for cross-country exploration if you don't mind walking on scree. The landscape is quite different than I've seen before - I'm used to seeing scree on the side of a hill, but here it formed lumpy mounds and there were larches growing in the middle of it. The trail itself was decent. It was steep at times, and there were a handful of unmarked social trails to confused you. Having a map and compass helped a little, but what was more helpful was having some extra time to explore and having experience guessing which trail is the right one. The description for Marion Lake is quite oversimplified and not sufficient to get to the second lake.