Hiked this on a Tuesday morning around 9. Parking lot was about half full - 9 cars or so. Be careful on the forest road as there are potholes and it is narrow so go slowly. The pit toilet at the trailhead had plenty of toilet paper - yay!

A lovely trail mostly in the shade with a nice mellow grade. There were some wildflowers blooming and the two stream crossings on logs are quite do-able. Once at the lake there are lots of spots to spread out so you can feel like you're in your own little world. That's where the mosquitos come out - at the lake - and it wasn't a lot of them. 

My fellow hikers were very courteous and there were two on-leash and two off-leash dogs. Sadly, there were two poop bags at the trailhead when I returned. I hope the owners picked them up on their return.

Long time lurker, first time trip reporter! I'm normally one for longer hikes, but didn't have much time this weekend, so I opted for Cutthroat Lake. Beautiful hike! 

The 1 mile road off of Highway 20 is riddled with potholes, some pretty deep, but very navigable. Plenty of parking, good bathroom - was absolutely shocked how uncrowded it was on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon in June. Only 3 or 4 other cars in the parking lot at 3 pm. 

Trail itself is well-maintained, with a couple blow downs (no issue). Two large creek crossings with social bridges only pose a bit of an obstacle - not an issue if you're fit and have good balance, but I could see it being a little troublesome for small children or older folks, for whom the rest of the trail is perfectly suited. I'd recommend poles if balance is a concern. 

The views at the top are stunning, and we had it to ourselves. Towering mountain ridges and a crystal clear lake with bubbling creeks. Hard to go wrong! We regretted not bringing binoculars to look for mountain goats.

Overall, very high reward hike for low effort. 

The trail to Cutthroat Lake is in great shape until you get to the fork where the main trail to the lake goes left and the trail to Cutthroat Pass continues straight ahead.  There is one log across the trail in this section, but it was easily climbed over.  The several creeks to cross were easily forded on logs or rocks.  For the largest of these, a good multiple-log crossing has been built just upstream from the trail.  Take the short trail to the right just before the stream. 

 We went down to the Cutthroat Creek crossing at the main fork, but crossing was not possible for us.  The options were wading through knee-deep rushing water or trying to balance on a partly submerged tree trunk with branch stubs protruding all along its length.  Neither was possible for our dog, so we went back to the main trail and took that to the lake, staying on the north side of Cutthroat Creek all the way. 

Shortly after the trail junction, the trail became snow-covered.  Patches of snow alternated with water and mud.  We could follow the footprints of previous hikers and did not have difficulty following the trail.  One large tree across the trail was the only major obstacle, but it was easy to go around one end, or climb over the other end.  As the trail approached the lake, it became increasingly muddy and wet.  The lakeshore itself was muddy, and there was really no place to sit and enjoy the marvelous view.   Fortunately, we had brought waterproof pads for sitting on, and found a small spot with enough room for the two of us and our dog to take a break and soak in the high ridges and lovely lake shore before us.  We could see the bare, sandy area across the outlet creek, which would have been a better spot, but crossing the outlet was again not possible. 

The trail was not busy and made a nice half-day hike.

HWY 20 opened Tuesday 4/22/25, so we decided to do a cross country ski tour towards Cutthroat Lake from HWY 20 on Wednesday 4/23/2025.  No issues driving HWY 20, except for some rockfall West of Diablo, and a deer grazing deicer off of the middle lane stripe East of Colonial Creek.

Got a late start from Everett, and arrived at pullout to Cutthroat around 11:30 AM.  Met someone coming out on skis, using an alpenstock instead of poles.  He reported that snow on the road from HWY 20 to trailhead was icy in the morning, but it had softened by the time we arrived.  I could see that an alpenstock might be handy for controlling speed when skiing down an icy road!  He said that he had crossed the footbridge, but couldn't locate the trail to the lake on the other side.

Skied the mile up the road to the trailhead with no problems.  Snow was nicely consolidated, with about a half inch of softened snow on top.  There were some small mounds / moguls on the snow left behind by snowmobiles.

Toilet was open, and stocked with toilet paper.

There was a snow moat about hip deep down to the bridge deck, and a narrow pile of snow down the center of the bridge.  It was difficult to climb out of the moat on the bridge back up onto the snow.

After wandering around a bit, we found the trail to Cutthroat lake.  The trail was fully covered with a few feet of snow.  The trail makes a few switchbacks near the bridge, then makes a long upward traverse toward the lake.  Look for wide corridors through the trees, with depressions in the snow.  It looked like someone had towed a pulk or sled behind skis or snowshoes up the trail in the past, which made route finding easier.  There were icy crusty patches of snow in the shade of the trees.  In some spots we teetered on high spots of snow between snow moats on either side of the trail.

We stopped for lunch at an open area caused by a long ago avalanche, and admired the views.  This was a bit over a mile from the trailhead.

I was concerned about skiing back down the crusty icy snow that was in the shade of the trees, so we headed back to the highway.  The snow had softened a bit by then, but skiing on narrow strips of snow between some of the moats was a bit uncomfortable.

On the way back, I almost fell off the end of the bridge.  One of the steps that I'd kicked into the snow collapsed, and I fell over sideways.  I was able to grab a bridge support, arresting my fall.

If you do the trip, beware that you will want skis or snowshoes.  Otherwise you'll posthole through the snow all day.

I recommend the trip if you're comfortable with snow travel.