Thunder Mountain Lakes, Trap Lake & Trap Pass — Saturday, Jul. 26, 2025

I pulled up at the Trailhead at around 8:45 am. There were around 15 cars parked on the side of the road. This TH does not have a proper Parking Lot, neither it has a Toilet.
the nearest Toilet coming from the Seattle side would be the Iron Goat interpretive trail. otherwise you can head towards the Ski resort area.

The 1.3 mile gravel road has a lot of potholes, but is doable in a sedan.
Only I and a subaru sedan was in the parking lot in the morning, every other car is with higher ground clearance.


The first part of the trail from the TH to Hope Lake is steep, around 1300 ft of climb in 1.5 miles.
then it gets gentle as soon as you're in the PCT.
I ran into 2 PCT southbound hikers at the Trap Pass.
funny conversations we had, I asked them if they are heading to Surprise and Glacier Lakes.
They response was - we will go wherever this trail takes us!
Then they told me they're heading to Mexico. So exciting and fun!


From Trap Pass to the Thunder Mountain Lakes, the trail gets interesting. for sure, it's an unmaintained trail..and I need to do a lot of scrambling over Rocks and tree roots.

after that, the boulder field was short and fun, follow the cairns.
right before entering the Lakes area, there is a small snowfield of 15-20 feet, pretty easy! no postholing as of now.

Thunder Mountain Lakes is absolutely one of its kind, totally worth the slog. I could see the Dip Top peak and Mt Daniel, Hinman ( I think) on the south side, and Glacier Peak, Sloan peak on the north.


This trail is very popular, but not like other Crazy ones. Saw around 30-35 people in the entire trail.
few runners, day hikers, and mostly backpackers!
I'm definitely gonna backpack here one day, just to get sunrise and sunset pictures of the Mt Daniel and Hinman!

it was a long day of hike,
14 miles, 4100 feet of gain!

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