Twin Lakes, Lake Lillian, Lake Laura Backdoor & Mount Margaret — Friday, Aug. 16, 2024

Summary:  The plan was to aim for Lake Lillian and if I had the energy and time afterwards, to do Mt Margaret on the return. I ended up adding a stop at Lake Laura because I could see glimpses of it through the trees in the last stretch to Lake Lillian. And I noticed the path down to it when I went past. Doing both those lakes and Mt Margaret, I covered 10 miles, 3600ft of total elevation gain, and spent 6.5 hours out there to include taking photos and having “lunch” at Lake Laura. Because there are no toilets or trash cans, I hit the nice public ones with running water at Hyak (discovery pass required) on the other side of I90 both before and after my hike, and used their trash cans to get rid of just my stinky bags of dog poo before a long drive home. Another option is the Gold Creek Pond trailhead nearby for a vault toilet, but no trash cans. Does anyone else have suggestions for facilities nearby? The forest road up is actually pretty good for a forest road. There is a little bit of washboarding. And on a Friday afternoon, there were plenty of parking spaces available in the trailhead parking area. The most challenging aspect of this hike was the number of opportunities to slip and fall on either fine dirt or mud. Shoes with good grip and hiking poles highly recommended, in addition to the basics of sun and bug protection.

Details:  This was my first time out here. It was a pretty nice hike that’s not that difficult to get to. The paved road running parallel to the highway does become a little sketchy as it curves to the left before becoming a dirt road. It’s only wide enough for one vehicle when it does this, but you can’t really see if there’s an oncoming vehicle until you’ve already entered that section of the road. So hopefully everyone goes slow in both directions. Parking wasn’t an issue, but the parking lot was showing some abuse if you looked. I wasn’t trying to, but I couldn’t help seeing trash, to include other people’s dog poo bags in the middle of the lot and what looked like areas in the trees used as toilets. But as for hitting the trail, I was surprised by how few hikers I ran into. I only saw other hikers on their way out as I was going in and only on the section going up to where you choose between the path to Margaret Lake or path to Lake Lillian. After that and for the rest of the hike, no one. Although at Lake Lillian I did see a tent on the shore. But when I returned to the parking lot at the end of the day, my car was the last. The dogs and I were eerily alone.

At the just over 3 mile point in, I hit the first steep section going down into a basin where I felt the fine dirt over rocks was very slippery. I reluctantly pulled out the hiking poles and was wondering if I was really going to need them, but oh man I did. I lost track of how many times I went down then up over and over again. And the slopes were steep and either fine slippery dirt or mud. It was much slower going down than up in both directions.

Except for Fireweed, most of the flowers I took photos of started around the Twin Lakes basin area. This is also where the bugs became more of a nuisance. Some of the flowers still growing here were American Sawwort, Lewis’ Monkeyflower, Valerian, and I think Alpine Aster. Near Lake Lillian there were pale Columbine and Columbia Tiger Lilies, and next to Lake Laura were Yellow Willowherb and more Lewis’ Monkeyflower. On Mt Margaret you can find Red Columbine, Parry’s Catchfly, Red Paintbrush, Orange Agoseris…

Distant peak views today included rolling clouds, so most of what I could enjoy were the lakes and flowers at ground level. No Mt Rainier for me today. Twin Lakes was cute and the most mirror like of all the lakes I saw. Lake Lillian was definitely the largest and a great option if your goal is to take a dip or actually swim. But I found Lake Laura the prettiest with what almost looked like a large island in the middle of it depending on your perspective. I believe from the top of Mt Margaret I was able to see Margaret Lake, Stonesthrow Lake, and Swan Lake. If anyone can confirm, I’d appreciate it.

Wow, if you read this far, thank you! Hope you enjoy your hike, too.