End-of-summer overnighter at Rampart Lakes with my adult son, starting at the Lake Lillian/Margaret trailhead.

A few Lake Lillian warnings:

1) Signage around the Lake Laura//Lake Lillian interchange could use some improvement.  On the way to Lillian from Twin Lakes - when in doubt, lean up & right :)

2) Dog owners and backpackers: at the Southern “entrance” to Lake Lillian (where it first comes into view) don’t try to navigate North via the trail near the water. That rock scramble can be a real challenge, especially if it’s slick from rain. From that entrance, go back a few paces towards Twin Lakes and look up & East for a trail around the massive rock face.  

Overall - Lot was full by 10am (we got the last spot), and had no issues following a few folks up the road, to the first Lake Margaret turnoff, then to the smaller hand-etched Lillian/Margaret sign.  Signage at the Margaret/Twin lakes intersection was spot-on.

Enjoyed great views and our first hint at blueberries on our way to Twin Lakes.  Lots of places to sit and enjoy a quick break or lunch; we pushed on for lunch at Lillian.  Absolutely gorgeous, once we navigated the rock face near the south edge of Lillian.

We continued on to Rampart Lakes, taking the very steep NE path from Lillian.  At the top we went left instead of right; oops, now we’re on Rampart Ridge.  Amazing views to the West but our thighs were not happy with the heavy extra workload.  Thankfully blueberries, blueberries everywhere softened the burn :)

Scrambled from the top down to the Southern edge of Rampart Lakes; there is a trail if you generally stay to the right going down toward Rampart Lakes.

Rampart Lakes were beautiful on a warm sunny Saturday, and the chilly water was refreshing. Lots of campers and tents, but everyone (and every dog) was polite and respected the space.  Every campsite had great sunset and nighttime views. The toilet was higher up the marked trail than I thought and in better-than-expected condition.  Be sure to bring a boot/hat/something for the approach trail to mark the toilet as occupied.

Lake Lila and Alta Mountain were as advertised, and the trail could also use a little signage help.  

Hike back on Sunday was very wet, but we stayed to the normal trail this time so it was pretty and uneventful. A sizable rock with a small overhang between Twin and Lillian Lakes made for a nice break from the rain!

Today's objective was Alta Mountain. By using the Lake Laura Backdoor I was able to also hit Rampart Lakes, Lila Lake, Lake Lillian and the amazing high country around Rampart Ridge.

Hardest part of the hike is the road, so I'll start there. When you turn off the main forest road, you have to do 2 miles on a fairly rutted and potholed road. The challenge is that there's no space on either side to maneuver, both due to the brush, and because the downhill side has a drop-off. If you meet another car, you have to back up. The good news today is that someone has come through and cut back some of the brush. The unfortunate news is that the potholes are worse than they were last year. At this point you really need high clearance. 

The Lake Laura Backdoor is a little overgrown at the beginning right now, but that doesn't go on very long. The rest of the trail is a forest scramble, but nothing technical. It's a good taste of what's coming if you go up beyond Lake Lillian. Lake Lillian is stunning and would be a good objective in itself.

The Rampart Ridge Backdoor up from Lake Lillian was super dry today. It wasn't hard to climb, but it was challenging not to kick rocks down. After the initial climb the trail forks. I took the climber's right fork going up as it has a little less elevation gain and I wanted to save energy for Alta. This fork has beautiful views of the canyons below Rachel Lake. There were also a couple of wildflower meadows still going strong right before Rampart Lakes.

Rampart Lakes had more campers than I expected for a Wednesday. But there were still numerous campsites. Everyone seemed to be around the biggest of the lakes and not around the others. I think I saw a mosquito or two here, but it was the only place on the whole hike. There was a breeze though, so maybe they're still around and I just missed them?

From there I hiked over to Lila Lake (second photo), which is stunning and apparently no one was down there that I could see. Today this probably would have made a more solitary place to camp than Rampart Lakes. 

There's a trail up the shoulder of Alta Mountain from Lila Lake. I took that. There was a storm system moving in today, so once I was on the ridge it was quite breezy. As others have mentioned, there are multiple false summits. It seems like you're up, and then you see the next one. While nothing on the trail is super scrambly, there's a couple of exposed ridges with Angel's Landing vibes. Don't take your friend who is afraid of heights up this peak. 

Alta Mountain had some of the best views, both at the peak and heading up and down, that I've experienced this year. It's right up there with Kaleetan.

After winding back down and back through Rampart Lakes, I decided to go back on the Rampart Ridge side of the high country loop. From the lakes up this side is more of a boulder scramble. If I were overnighting with a heavier pack, I would probably stay on the canyon side of the loop instead. The Ridge side also gave me a nice view back down to what I'd hiked (4th photo). Since I'd been up on Alta, I skipped the summit of Rampart Ridge today.

The high side trail back from Rampart Ridge to Lake Lillian wanders through high alpine meadows and several pretty tarns. There were quite a few marmots here. (None of them would pose for a photo.)

Total mileage today was 11 miles and 3950' of elevation gain.

We arrived at the Margaret Lake trailhead parking lot this morning a little bit before 10am on a sunny Wednesday - with much cooler temperatures than the last few days!  However, instead of heading up the road to the Margaret Lake trail, we headed down the hill and turned right to hike to the Lake Laura/Rampart Ridge backdoor trailhead.  The road walk was a bit more than 2 miles but there was no traffic on a weekday, the road was smooth and mostly shady, and we snacked on thimbleberries along the way.  

The WTA trail description for the backdoor trail is spot on - extremely steep in places.  However, we took our time and after a little more than a mile, we reached the left turn for the Lake Laura trail.  The trail descends steeply but in a very short distance we arrived at Lake Laura.  It's a charming U-shaped lake but the center of the "U" looks like a small island from this vantage point and the mountain backdrop was stunning!  As a bonus, there was a nice patch of columbian monkshood and some monkey flowers growing right next to the trail.

After a quick break at Lake Laura, we retraced our steps and continued the steep climb to Lake Lillian.   After about a half a mile, there is a nice viewpoint near the trail that provides a nice overlook of Lake Laura.  Just a few steps after that we arrived at Lake Lillian - approximately 4 miles and 1,700 feet elevation from the Margaret Lake trailhead.  Lake Lillian is much larger but just as scenic as Lake Laura.  We stopped here for lunch and a quick swim in the lake to cool off after the steep climb.

After retracing our steps partway back down the hill, we veered to the left and we began climbing again up the main Lake Lillian trail towards Twin Lakes.  This trail is steep and rocky in places but we were rewarded for our efforts with the lovely meadows below Twin Lakes, scattered wildflowers (including lupine, tiger lilies, spirea) and plentiful, delicious blueberries!  The Twin Lakes are smaller and shallower but still beautiful and peaceful.

After Twin Lakes, the trail kicked up yet again but this time our reward at the top of the hill was the view behind us - wide open views of the surrounding mountains including Snoqualmie Mountain, Mount Thomson and Dungeon Peak.  At this point the trail flattened, reentered the trees and we arrived in a short while at the bottom of the short spur up to Mount Margaret.  This is a very steep trail and I took full advantage of my trekking poles here - especially on the descent.  The views at the top are amazing - looking down on one side at Margaret Lake and on the other at countless mountain peaks (and all of the lakes we hiked past earlier in the day)!  As an added bonus, we came across some red paintbrush, red columbine and even an orange mountain dandelion just below the summit.

After briefly considering one last stop at Margaret Lake, we decided that we had seen plenty of lakes in one day and headed back down from the Mount Margaret summit to our car.   Despite the 2 mile road walk in the beginning, this was a fantastic loop hike and I will definitely be doing this one again in the future!

10 miles, 6 hours, 2,900 feet of elevation gain

We started our hike from the Lake Margaret Trailhead, the parking lot was full at 8:30am, with a couple cars parked along the road.  The hike begins with a little bit of a road walk and then transitions to what feels like an old logging road.  The trail involves quite a bit of climbing up to the Lake Margaret turnoff, we decided to head to Lake Lillian and save Lake Margaret for the hike back.  The trail has lots of ups and downs on the way to Twin Lakes, with pretty steep switchbacks right before the lakes.  Twin Lakes was a nice stop along the way, as we began more ups and downs before a sharp uphill to Lake Lillian.  The lake is beautiful and was busy today with a couple tents set up on the other side, someone fishing from a raft, people walking around the lake, and people headed up to and coming down from Rampart Ridge.  It was great place to have lunch.

After Lunch we headed back towards Lake Margaret after a short detour down to Lake Laura which involved less than a half mile of distance and 200 plus or minus feet of descent. On the way back I detoured up Mt Margaret which was the steepest part of the hike and some awesome views. We also stopped at Lake Margaret.  The trail down to Lake Margaret loses a lot of elevation down some nicely constructed switchbacks.  The lake is picturesque and was a nice place to rest before the trek back up those switchbacks.  The hike out has some beautiful views of Mt Rainier. 

A fun hike with lots of climbing throughout.  Gaia had it at 11.5 miles and 2895 ft of ascent.

Short version: I was curious to compare hiking to Lake Lillian on the normal trail vs the "backdoor" route. I loved the normal trail and it's a beautiful hike if your destination is Lake Lillian, but if you're headed to Rampart Ridge and beyond, the backdoor route is probably the way to go.

More details: 

The road in is okay, but beware of potholes/waves on a couple of the switchback turns. Compared to the backdoor route's road, this is a piece of cake.

Don't be too put off by the trail description about hiking into a clearcut. It's pretty filled in and that part doesn't last that long. By the time you get to the ridge, you're in more mature and beautiful forest.

Today the trail was clouded in on the ridge, which made for a nice cool hike. The only bugs I encountered were after I descended to Twin Lakes. Around the lakes you're hiking for a bit through wetlands - mountain meadows with several tarns and creeks. That said, the bugs there were fairly minimal. 

After Twin Lakes there's a fairly substantial climb up to Lake Lillian. It's so worth the extra hike though. This is an amazing lake. As the trail description says, it is surrounded by steep slopes and rock, but there are several places to sit and a couple of places to access the water. Today was cold, so I did not go in. Best part was there were no bugs whatsoever. Was is just because it was a cool day? I don't know. I sat at the lake for about a half hour until I got cold and needed to move.

Roundtrip from the Margaret/Lillian trailhead to Lake Lillian was a little over 9 miles. Elevation was almost exactly 3000'. So if you used this route to hit Rampart Ridge, you'd be adding 6 miles and 2000' to your trip compared to the backdoor route. Since all the peaks today were in the clouds, I was happy I'd taken the long route in since Lillian alone made a great destination.

A couple of other details: parking lot was half full at 12:30. Saw about 15 people total, including one party of 6 heading in for an overnight. There's no bathroom at the trailhead - I usually stop at the Laconia Market at the pass. There was a nice box full of wilderness permits at the trailhead with no pen or pencil to fill them out with.