I hiked the first 3 miles as an afternoon ramble — just up to the the Beauty Creek turnoff — and was very pleasantly surprised by the trail and the valley. After the first steepish ascent from the car park, the valley broadens with high canyon-like walls of talus and avalanche slopes and steep rock outcroppings. As a result, the valley has an openness and light that invites and allows the eyes to travel upward to the higher slopes on either side.
At the same time, where the trail cross Robinson Creek, you enter dense groves of cedars (and some firs) as moments of coolness. In particular, the grove just before the Beauty Creek bridge (2.8 mile) was a respite from a hot, dry afternoon. If you follow the user trail down through the grove to the confluence of the two creeks, there is a wonderous jumble of cedar roots and trunks and river cobbles forming still pools and riffles.
All of the campsites I saw were very very inviting and I will add this to a list of future backpacking locales.
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