Lake Ann — Saturday, Jun. 14, 2025

Arrvied to the trailhead around 0800 this morning. There were only about 10 cars. The road is easily driveable. There are some potholes that can be avoided and some washboard.

This trail is very well graded! The first three miles don't feel steep, more so just rolling hills with a few switchbacks. We counted 25 stream crossings today - nothing difficult, as there are rocks and logs to step on. Only a few downed trees, again, nothing difficult to navigate around. 

Once at the junction for Lake Ann, the trail gets a bit steeper with scree and large rocks. Around 3.5 miles in, we encountered some snow on the trail. The last few piles of snow that remain are quickly melting. 

As we neared the view point of Lake Ann, a mountain goat appeared! He was pretty curious and a little territorial. I walked back down a bit because we had our dog. A few other individuals passed us to go summit a nearby peak, and the goat took interest in following them. As we went back to the overlook, we saw the goat coming back, so we decided not to go down to the lake today and found a great spot a bit lower down on the trail to watch climbers headed up some of the Esmerelda Peaks.

This trail is absolutely beautiful. Views of all of the peaks, the blue lake and Mt Rainier made for a perfect hike. We heard some pikas and saw a marmot as well. It never felt busy, we only saw a few larger backpacking groups on our way down.

It took us about 4.5 hours round-trip, with a lot of stops for photos. 8.2 miles with 2300' gain. Will definitely be back to backpack and check out the larches in the fall.