Arrived at around 8:45am on this holiday. The parking lot was full but not brimming; I was maybe the fifth car to hug the side of the road. Less cars than I thought there would be, and two left while I was putting my boots on. I did not enter the bathroom so cannot speak to it's maintenance.
This trail went above my expectations! The elevation is spread evenly, so while you are gaining the entire time, it never feels like there are ridiculously steep sections. Still, it is a good workout. You spent the first <2 miles in the forest, then break into some exposure, before finding the meadows around 2.5? miles in. These sections are totally exposed so bring sun protection. The meadows were gorgeous as were the views! Flowers definitely still remain although not sweeping. I did not have any bug product on me or my clothes and didn't interact with any bugs.
You meet the boulder scramble at around mile 3/3.25, and it will take you up to the lookout. Since this is my first time doing Granite, I am not aware of the winter versus summer route, but it looks like other trip reporters have noted that the summer route lets you bypass some of these boulders. Given snow coverage, I believe the summer route is still not fully accessible yet? So my experience was that the ridgeline boulder fields were the primary route to the lookout. Wayfinding is necessary but there are also multiple ways you can go about (and correct yourself) through the scramble. No helmets needed. In my opinion, you could turn around at scramble to make it a ~6 mile, <3000ft gain hike and it would still be worth it given the beautiful mountain views and meadows.
When I returned, there were more cars in the area. There was a good amount of people on this i90 hike potentially enjoying their day off like I was, but I experienced lots of time on the trail by myself.
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