The upper portion of this hike was just wonderful. Seeing the amazing geology up close was really awe-inspiring, and I had many grateful thoughts to the souls who built this trail, especially the stairs! It was a dry day with mist among the trees which made it all the better. However, following the rock portion of the hike, we continued on to Lost Lake -- who wouldn't want to visit a Lost Lake?! The trail became progressively muddier and muddier. It was very slippery and we found ourselves slipping and sliding along, and though we considered turning around many times, we really wanted to see the lake and felt it would make a good lunch spot, so we persevered. The mud continued to get deeper and slippier. As we neared the lake, I slipped off a "bridge" of logs laying across an enormous and deep mud puddle. One leg fell in to the mid-calf; I consider myself lucky that I didn't lose my shoe! We reached the lake only to find that there really is no access and we had to bushwhack our way to the edge of the water just to get a glimpse. So our conclusion: definitely hike the upper trail, but skip the Lost Lake portion of the hike, at least in conditions such as we encountered.

Hiking this trail, I remembered this was my first work party. It was a cold Feb day, everybody knew everybody else but me and I was the only gal. I did know how to wield a shovel, tho, and was soon clearing down to mineral soil. There was this huge rock the guys were trying to dig out. I never thought a bunch of old guys would get it moved, but then again, I had not yet worked with Pete! I didn't really know if this is something I wanted to do when I retired, but eventually I signed up for another work party. And another, etc. I never got to work on this particular trail again tho. It it a wonderful trail! We hiked down it, went to Lost Lake, then back the Lost Lake trail around to Fragrance Lake then up the Double Diamond back to the parking lot. I found out afterwards from another hiker, that you can go all the way past Lost Lake on the East Lost Lake trail, thru the private stretch and loop around that way and get great views of Mt Baker. Next time.

After seeing the article the Seattle Times recently did about this hike, I had to check it out. Very nicely done. And the hike back up really didn't seem so bad as there is so much to look at. The sandstone steals the show, and is wonderfully lit up right now when the sun shines through the leafless trees. There are a lot of different ferns seemingly everywhere. The trail also has some nice fungus along the way. The trail was in very good shape even with the recent rain. If you proceed to Lost Lake from this trail, be ready for a lot more mud.

This hike is kid friendly, if your child can handle ALL the stairs. For us and our 10 year old it was a quick in and out hike. There was a super chilly breeze at the top which went away as we hiked further down. We never crossed paths with any bikes. Matter of fact, we only passed three other hiking groups during our exploration. Picked up a quick GeoCache at the turn around point and headed back up the stairs... reminiscent of M.C. Escher's famous staircases! I totally recommend this quick easy hike. I would even suggest hiking around some of the many other trails in the immediate area.