Road up is not for the faint of heart or those with low clearance vehicles. Made it up just fine in my Tacoma, and friends in their newish Rav4. Wouldn't want anything wider than the Tacoma for some of the narrower spots, and the Rav4 lost traction on some of the larger runoff humps and had to back up and take a different line.
Hiking party consisted of 6 adults and two children 3 & 7. Kids did ok but got carried for chunks of the walk, one for most of it.
Earlier reports of a mostly burned trailhead sign are accurate. Much of the hike is through land that burned in a past forest fire, which had a beauty of its own. We saw a black bear quite a ways below us midway through, and bear scat on the trail. Lots of ripe wild berries. I got stung in the ankle by a wasp in the denser greener foliage near the 1st lake.
Friend swam in the 1st lake and he said it was very very cold and hurried back out after we snapped a photo.
Trail was quite narrow in some areas and the drop off very steep. Not the most stereotypically gorgeous hike but still was beautiful in its own way and it was cool to see how the ecosystem was slowly bouncing back after the fire. Much more exposed to sun though as a result of the burned trees.
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