So do not be fooled by the stats here. the descent to Twin Lakes, and the up and down to Lillian are steep, rocky and full of roots. Definitely more challenging than would anticipate and not the best for beginning hikers. For me, if Lillian is the sole destination, there are much better alpine lakes you can do and would not do this hike again. The views of Rainier, however, on the way up are stunning and well worth it, then maybe a trip to Margaret Lake?

We hiked through the "backdoor" behind Lillian Lake that leads up to Rampart Ridge/Lakes and summited Alta Mountain -- I'll start with stats: My watch tracked us at about 17 miles and 7200ft of elevation gain overall. Took us about 12hours total, I moved slow on the way back. We did head down to Margaret Lake, so without that detour it'd be closer to 16.5 miles and 6900ft of gain.

Day 1: Had a friend visiting in town and spent the day climbing at the exits, so we started our hike to Margaret Lake at 10pm and arrived around midnight, there is some snow heading down to the lake, easily passable, but made navigation a little tricky especially at night and with headlamps. We had to cross a little pond/swamp that is in the middle of the trail using some sticks/logs in the way, was quite engaging for something we were doing 15 minutes before bed. The areas right by the lake are muddy and not suitable for camping, but we found some spots about 200ft up that were flat and great. 

Day 2: Started the day later at around 7am -- packed up our stuff, and headed back up to the fork area, we dropped some of our stuff here and made our way to Lake Lillian. From waking up to the end of this day there were mosquitoes. 

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On the way to Lake Lillian there aren't many obstacles, at times the trail is overgrown, and the descent can be a bit steep in sections. From this point on, every descent/ascent felt more like a climbers trail to me than your typical hiking trail. 

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At Lake Lillian (beautiful lake!) we found some snow, and had no clue what the proper way to the backdoor was, we ended up doing a bit of scrambling up a slab rock wall and eventually found a trail that lead us to the steepest climb of the day up the backdoor. This climb has loose rock on it, is a very steep grade, but is short. Again, a climbers trail that is quite steep and rough/rugged.

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The hike over to Rampart Ridge follows the same pattern, head down into a valley, then climb out of that valley up a steep trail (that again, was easy to veer off of and hard to navigate around). There's great creeks along the way on this portion to fill water up with (very grateful for this!). Descending Rampart Ridge to Rampart Lakes involved the most snow -- we didn't have spikes or anything and felt secure, but I saw several people moving much slower and being deliberate with their footing on the way down (and later up) this section. Once you get to the lakes, it's a beautiful spot and I definitely would love to come back to camp here. Water is cold and refreshing, great for the cold plungers, good spot to have lunch if you brought it. 

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From here we made our way towards the trail marked as Lila Lake, there's a turn left at some point in this trail that takes you up to the Alta Mountain climbers trail -- we missed this and had to bushwhack up a ridge to make it to a later section of that trail. From here, the trail is very exposed to sun and is along a ridgeline. I'm a baby when it comes to heights and ended up being fine all the way to the summit, but it was definitely scary and slow moving for me. The summit is beautiful and well worth the difficulty.

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Overall: The ups and downs were much steeper than I anticipated. As mentioned before, I'd consider them climbers trails and they were brutal, especially on the way back when morale was low due to bugs and a bit of bonking. Poles are useful, glad I had mine! My friend, who is much fitter than me, was fine without them though.

Navigation was difficult and I had a gps track downloaded (so either I'm bad at navigation or things are difficult to find, take what you will from that).

We anticipated this hike was much easier than expected because of a previous trip report (my fault, should've done more research) and the distance and gain was considerably higher than what was reported for us. In hindsight, we would've brought more food and ensured we didn't forget vital things like our sun hoody and glasses in the car (again, our fault).

The bugs, oh man the bugs, they were horrible. We were bitten by mosquitoes from the moment we started hiking until the very end when we were descending back from the Margaret Lake fork. Bring bug protection. I have well over 100 mosquito bites...

Quite an unexpected adventure. 

Excellent morning outing to Alta Mountain via the Rampart Ridge Backdoor! Specs according to my GPS watch: 9.6 miles, 4240' gain, total time 5 hours 32 mins. Started hiking at 6:00 am on the nose and was very happy to have done so.

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The spur road to the Lake Lillian/Rampart Ridge Backdoor TH is gnarlier than I remember, though it's been 7 years since I've been there. There are several unavoidable potholes that slightly bottomed out my Impreza. Nothing bad, but enough that I softly apologized to the car when I got to the road's end. Brush has been kept back so no new pinstripes. Enough room at the trailhead for several cars (there were 5 by the time I left).

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The trail up to Lake Lillian is shorter and less brutal than I remember, but by no means kind. No notable obstacles, and totally snow-free up to the very edge of the lake. It looks like the one campsite by the outlet (to the west when approaching the lake from downhill) is totally melted out. But also I saw a couple backpackers heading in as I was on my way out, so it might well be occupied by now.

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The trail from Lake Lillian over to Rampart is pretty gross still. The first stretch, while almost entirely clear of snow, has lots of loose rock on steep trail, which kept it spicy. At the top of the bowl the snow resumes in earnest. There are long swaths of bare earth where you can pick out the trail, but there are a great many snowfields in there as well. By the end of the morning my feet were soaked, even with leather/Gore-Tex boots. I spoke with a guy up there who had lugged his skis up on a backpack, and we each bemoaned the amount of snow (for different reasons). 

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Rampart Lakes looks very pretty - most of the lakes are largely melted out, but the last big one is still predominantly covered. Almost all the trails around there seem clear of snow, minus those by the big lake. I counted three groups who had camped there last night, all in snow-free sites. I saw more heading in throughout the day.

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The trail from Rampart Lakes to Lila Lake/Alta Mountain is largely snow-covered, but as flat as it is, it's fast going, and there's a clear bootpath (less so towards Lila). I totally missed the turnoff for Alta Mountain as it is still snow-covered, so I got to explore down towards Lila and then made a sketchy ascent across a snowfield and through some steep heather to get back on track. I had a close encounter with a marmot while doing that. 

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Lila Lakes are just starting to melt out - I don't think I'd want to camp there just yet. I saw a prepared-looking solo backpacker heading in there though, so all the power to him. Lots of little snowmelt ponds the color of Glacier Freeze Gatorade throughout the area.

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I was pleasantly surprised by the Alta Mountain Trail - it's almost entirely melted out! Smooth sailing and solid trail. Some high-exposure stretches, and some steep bits, but for the most part it was the nicest trail I hiked all day. And the views are to die for-- absolutely euphoric with clear skies! There are a couple small snowfields right towards the summit that gave me some pause, but everything could either be kick-stepped across or avoided entirely. I suspect they'll be gone within a week anyway.

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Meant to touch the top of Alta Mountain and hurry home, but the view was so nice I hung out for half an hour. No regrets there. Some small flies kept me company, but nothing loud or bitey. I had service up there today (T-Mobile) so I shared some pics with friends.

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Had a smooth journey back. Found a couple puffball mushrooms, filtered water by Rampart Lakes, chatted with some nice people, and sent it on down to the TH. The snow got goopy by noon, which made for slower going. Also the hill up from Rampart Lakes to Lake Lillian felt much bigger than it did going downhill. It felt blisteringly hot on the snow - I was very thankful for my sun hoodie, face sunscreen, and glacier glasses. Got back to the car, took off my wet boots, drank a quart of chocolate milk, and thought about quitting my job to go hike full-time. I won't, but days like today make it really tempting. :) 

Beautiful hike this time of year! Road was snow free and only one other car at the parking lot at 10am this Sunday. Snow starts almost as soon as you get on trail. Gets to about hip height at the final junction to the lake. Trail was clear and was well packed. Definitely bring proper snow gear and wear boots, gaiters, and spikes for a more comfortable time.

Beautiful hike this time of year! Road was snow free and only one other car at the parking lot at 10am this Sunday. Snow starts almost as soon as you get on trail. Gets to about thigh height at the final junction to the lake. Trail was clear and was well packed. Definitely bring proper snow gear and wear boots, gaiters, and spikes for a more comfortable time.