Royal Basin via Royal Lake — Friday, Apr. 24, 2026

Just a quick report for the Royal Lake/Royal Basin trail today.  Road in was the same potholed joyride as usual.  Enough said about that!!  Trail was in beautiful condition.  It looked like WTA or other volunteers had cut a number of good size blowdowns out of the way recently.  We only had to duck under one smaller blowdown. Thank you for your efforts!  On the way up we donned microspikes about 1/4 mile past Royal Lake, and on the way down left them on until the lower basin.   A little route finding was needed in the snow above the lake, but no issues.  Very little postholing on the way to the Upper Basin.  The lakes/tarns up there were frozen over.  The weather was awesome, and the views were spectacular today.  The snow did start getting slightly slushy on the surface on our way down, but was very manageable.  Always a beautiful hike! 😎🥾