Lake 22 — Monday, Apr. 20, 2026

Wanted a short hike with the dog up north to avoid rush hour traffic (and hopefully trail traffic).  This hike checks alot of the boxes as it's easy access from the road, varied scenery both in and out of the forest, some mild technical work (water, rocks, careful footing), a bit of a workout with steps, and nice mountain and lake views away from the foothills.  

Got to the parking lot around 9 am finding a few cars in the lot.  Bathrooms had no TP and were not too bad otherwise.  The bear proof trashcan seemed to be locked as I tried to press the handle to release the lock without success.  Unfortunately someone left food covered plates on the ground next to the cans.  We started hiking close to 9:30.  Based on previous reports and a warm few days after lots of snow, we wore waterproof boots, low gaiters, had poles, and carried microspikes (never used them).  Water was running intermittently on the first section of trail (0.5 miles) but it was not high enough to cover my boots and very easy to step around.  The streams and waterfalls were running high which is always a nice sound to hear in the forest.  The trail is amazing.  I had not been here since 2019 and it's certainly changed alot.  It is very wide and the staircases, tree clearing, trail re-route area, and work done to save the trail from future washouts was really remarkable.  Thank you for your hard work WTA!  It was literally a work of art, especially the gigantic cedar that fell over the trail which was then carved out from the bottom side so you could walk under it.  So much work!

There are lots of big rocks, boulders, talus, and some scree yielding some careful foot placement to prevent slipping.  Lots of exposed slippery roots as well.  Good foot work and hiking shoes/boots to prevent injury recommended.  Saw scant patches of snow on the sides of the trail at 2300 ft.  Then 4-6 inches of compact snow/slush on the trail for the last 0.1 mile to the lake.  No postholing but slippery in places.  I used poles but no microspikes up or down.  The lake is about 75% frozen.  Lots of waterfalls to admire on the wall on the other side of the lake.  Sat in the sun for 30 minutes of so.  There were about 10-12 people at the lake when we were there (some chatty, some not).  Then we started our descent.  I saw some unreachable large water bottles off the sides of the trails but only a rare piece of trash or TP.  Hope it stays clean with the masses this year.  I packed up my dog's poo for a trash can back near the car (but it didn't work so packed it out).  Looked for wildflowers on this very wide and dug out trail and managed to find a few Trillium and the yellow violets are starting to pop out about 1/3-1/2 way up. Oh, and some skunk cabbage, some in the snow near the lake which looked beautiful.  All in all a great day with Monarch and the pup.  Just what we needed today.  Saw probably 15 people heading up as we were heading out so not really crowded today.  Again, I can't say enough about the impressive work done to keep this trail safe and accessible.