Upper Wildcat Lake, Gem Lake & Lower Wildcat Lake — Thursday, Jul. 10, 2025

Day 1: Hike to Gem Lake

Started at 8 am on a Thursday and had no trouble finding parking at the Alpental lot. We started in dense fog and passed a few day hikers to Snow Lake on the way up. The trail to snow lake has been widened since I was last there six years ago. Past snow lake, the trail is well marked, pay attention to sections that have rocks across them or downed branches so that you stay on the main trail. We arrived at Gem lake before noon and no one was camping yet. We explored all of the possible spots.

Camping beta: there are spots to your left immediately upon approaching the lake. There were still snow patches, puddles, and bog-like spots on a few tent spots that should be dried out in a few weeks. If you keep going past the toilet sign, there are even more sites up to the right. There were three that we saw that looked viable and a few others still under snow, but it’s melting fast. There are easy water/lake access points near both camping areas. The campsites filled up quickly that afternoon with only two spots for small tents remaining at sunset.

Since we arrived at camp so early we took a short jaunt up past the further campsites to the top of Wright Mountain. This required some route finding and light scrambling but offered some lovely views!

It was pretty hard to avoid bugs anywhere around Gem Lake with all the melting out and standing puddles at the moment. It was tolerable but would recommend a bug net and spray for your own comfort.

Day 2: Day Hike to Lower & Upper Wildcat Lakes

Once you hike around Gem, you descend immediately over many switchbacks. There’s a short stream crossing to a talus field that was easy to navigate using the existing cairns. The next part of the trail is the most overgrown, but you’re still able to follow a trail without issue. There is a single blow down you have to climb over while the others have become part of the trail. Lower Wildcat is nice, some members of our group went around and scouted some of the campsites there (I think there were two). There are two stream crossings with muddy/slippery rocks that all members of our party used trekking poles to navigate with dry feet. After that we started a steep but short climb up to Upper Wildcat Lake. We met a trail runner that said they had seen a bear, but we did not. The lake is magical and lovely and was mostly bug free. We spent the afternoon here with the lake to ourselves, swimming, lounging, and fishing. There seemed to be about three campsites here that we found. If we were to come back, we’d probably head straight to Upper Wildcat Lake for the solitude and fewer bugs.

We hiked back to Gem for dinner and had a spectacular sunset with only one other camper. Gem Lake has some epic craggy Mountain views all around and is maybe more strikingly beautiful than the other lakes noted here. A few campers rolled in late, around 10 pm that night.

Day 3: Hike out from Gem Lake

We took our time and had a relaxed breakfast before heading out around 9. The day hikers were already hitting the lake in full force and hiking out was pretty slow going. As we neared Snow Lake we encountered a handful of Bluetooth speakers, lots of off trail meanderers, and people that weren’t aware they needed to yield to hikers coming uphill. There were MANY backpackers heading up on Saturday… too many for the available spots we saw at Gem Lake at this time. I would recommend leaving early if you want to secure a spot on a Saturday evening.

TL;DR: Trail has no major obstacles. Gem Lake has quite a few campsites that will all be lovely and dry within the next 1-2 weeks. Upper Wildcat offers more solitude but Gem Lake has the views. Bugs weren’t terrible but they were incessant.