We started our hike from the Lake Margaret Trailhead, the parking lot was full at 8:30am, with a couple cars parked along the road. The hike begins with a little bit of a road walk and then transitions to what feels like an old logging road. The trail involves quite a bit of climbing up to the Lake Margaret turnoff, we decided to head to Lake Lillian and save Lake Margaret for the hike back. The trail has lots of ups and downs on the way to Twin Lakes, with pretty steep switchbacks right before the lakes. Twin Lakes was a nice stop along the way, as we began more ups and downs before a sharp uphill to Lake Lillian. The lake is beautiful and was busy today with a couple tents set up on the other side, someone fishing from a raft, people walking around the lake, and people headed up to and coming down from Rampart Ridge. It was great place to have lunch.
After Lunch we headed back towards Lake Margaret after a short detour down to Lake Laura which involved less than a half mile of distance and 200 plus or minus feet of descent. On the way back I detoured up Mt Margaret which was the steepest part of the hike and some awesome views. We also stopped at Lake Margaret. The trail down to Lake Margaret loses a lot of elevation down some nicely constructed switchbacks. The lake is picturesque and was a nice place to rest before the trek back up those switchbacks. The hike out has some beautiful views of Mt Rainier.
A fun hike with lots of climbing throughout. Gaia had it at 11.5 miles and 2895 ft of ascent.
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