Road: The half mile dirt road to Gold Pond parking lot has a lot of pot holes. The drive is slow but is only a half mile.

Toilets: The toilet was open but no toilet paper. There was no trash can so others left garbage on the floor. Many people going to Gold Pond are not hikers but are just going out for a picnic or short trip to be in nature.

Parking lot: The parking lot was full on this sunny, warm Sunday afternoon, as expected, but I did get a parking spot as someone else just pulled out.

Trail: We did not hike around Gold Pond as we wanted to find Rampart Falls which is along the trail going to Alaska and Joe Lakes. We hiked the first half mile along the Gold Pond Loop trail to the road heading to Heli’s Pond. Then we followed the road past many cabins for a mile, just stopping at Heli’s Pond for a few pictures.

At 1.6 miles from the car, we started on the Gold Creek trail. The trail leads thru woods and some rocky areas. At about another mile the trail touches Gold Creek but does not cross it. We sat for a few minutes at a log watching the creek flow. The trail was in pretty good shape until 3 miles from the car. At this point we started encountering a few downed trees, but none were too hard to get over. There were a couple log crossings over side creeks. One crossing freaked me out because the stream underneath was very loud going over the rocks. I had to scoot across, while my wife walked across.

At 3.7 miles from the car, Rampart Falls came into view. We could also look ahead on see Kendall’s Katwalk high up the mountain in front of us. We decided to see if we could get a better view by continuing up the trail for another quarter of a mile. The high brush was grown over the trail so we had to duck some and push our way thru. In this area there was one foot-bridge over a small creek that broke in the middle. We got our feet wet. We stopped at 4 miles from our car, where the trail had switch back up the hill and had some better or different views of the two ribbon falls dropping of the Ramparts.

Mud and water on trail: At times we were walking in water as it ran down the trail and we tried side stepping around muddy sections but with hiking boots these were not an issue to us.

Flowers: There were Trilliums galore along the trail. Normally Trilliums are white but here they were a variety of pinks, lavenders, etc., but seldom white. There was also an abundance of bleeding hearts, evergreen violets (they are yellow), miner’s lettuce (the candy flower did not have the peppermint strips that I expect to see), bluebells and a few other flowers. There are some still getting ready to bloom.

Comments: Our total hike was 7.9 miles with an elevation gain of less than 500 feet. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice this trail was.

I went about 4 miles from the Gold Creek Pond TH. Bleeding heart and trillium are blooming. Patchy snow and creek crossing were not an issue. I turned around after reaching a long stretch of slide alder. The trail was still visible but much of the alder was growing horizontal - pushed down by winter snow and/or human snow recreation. (I don't know if the alder will spring up but you may want to bring some lopers.)

The way back was much easier with much of the obscuring branches and downed limbs removed by someone - oh, that was me. :)  I didn't see anyone else in the wilderness.

Despite the 1 mile road walk this was one of our favorite trails to hike on. About 20 years ago my daughter and I were on a WTA work party where we did brushwork and cut down some fallen trees blocking the trail.

it had rained a lot the night before so some of the trail had water running down the trail. At about 2 1/2 miles in we came across the first of 10 downed trees that were blocking the trail.

We hiked about 4 miles to the avalanche area, where we could see the big waterfall cascading down the hill to the right, and the snow touched mountains directly in front of us where the Pacific Crest Trail passed by the Kendall catwalk and Alaska lake.

Most of the fall foliage had already come off the trees and bushes. However, the mosses and the liverworts were a really luscious green color with many mushrooms that poked up through the mosses.

Still autumn foliage to enjoy but quickly fading. However, lots and lots of cool fungi to admire. On this non-rainy day, no wet foliage but can image that going through the shrubby areas below the talus slopes and avalanche area could be soggy. As it was, in those areas only had branches whipping at our faces to be an annoyance. Pikas called from the rocks as we passed. Heya...about that creek crossing where earlier reviewers turned around: I suppose it could have been a high flow day or didn't have good balance. Dunno. For our group, stepping across on rocks worked for everyone with nary a soaked boot (see picture). After the work of over/under/through the tree fall (starting at about 3 miles), crossing the talus slope right before arriving to Alaska Lake could challenge tired legs (see picture) Video of Alaska Lake here.  12.5 miles, 1763' elevation gain.

We hiked up Gold Creek as far as the creek crossing after the huge avalanche path on this lovely fall day. We started by going the "long way" around the paved Gold Creek pond path, and with that our electronics clocked in at about 9.5 miles RT and around 760 feet of elevation gain. I thought it was interesting seeing the vacation homes along the road portion, and there is another small pond just before the real trail begins, which is part of the Natural Resource Area and has a couple of benches and a circular trail maybe 1/4 mile long. 

The trail is a pleasant forest walk with two rocky talus sections which provide views and a sunny rock or two to sit on. There's a creek access about 3 miles in where we let the dog splash and where there is an old campfire ring and a possible somewhat gravelly tent site. The avalanche swath at about 4 miles in is really impressive. Just before entering it you get a good view of it and also the west side of the valley where trees were knocked uphill. Look to the end of the valley from here and you can clearly see the PCT tracing across the face of Alaska Mountain. The trail continues through the avalanche area in a tunnel of alder before a couple easy switchbacks uphill in the alder (check out the view to the east where the avalanche must have come roaring off the steep lower slope of Alta Mountain and stripped everything - it was easy to imagine that the snow could have been airborne as it crested the top of the slope) and then a short descent into the woods. Within 10-15 minutes you arrive at the creek crossing. This would still require wading and makes a good turnaround point. A hundred yards or so downstream of the crossing, a short path off the main trail leads to a nice campsite. Saw one other group of 2 doing the same thing and a pair of mushroom pickers in the forested section on our return. Plenty of people enjoying Gold Creek Pond.