I've been to Rachel and Lila lakes a few times over the years but somehow have never made it all the way up the ridge of Alta. Figured I would try out the backdoor since I've never entered the area this way before.
The last couple miles of road are pretty rough; there's some significant ruts and potholes and since it's so narrow there's not really a way to avoid any of the obstacles or get good angles. Made it just fine in a forester but nothing at the lot lower than that and I wouldn't really recommend attempting.
Set off at 6:30 this morning, 3 other cars in the lot. The first couple of miles up past Lillian Lake and over Rampart Ridge are typical of backdoor/old/similarly named trails, you shorten the trip by a couple miles in exchange for steep, rooty, rocky eroded etc., but in terms of this category of trail it's really not so bad. No snow remains at all until you get over onto the north side of Rampart Ridge. There's a fork in the trail ~1.4 miles in from the lot, I took the right fork on the way in which stays a little lower and avoids some steeper snow slopes and came back down the other after ascending Rampart Ridge later in the day. Some of the slopes on this north side are absolutely blanketed in dense glacier lilies right now, turning the whole slope a brilliant yellow in the morning light.
Dropping down into the Rampart Lakes basin there's still a few feet of snow remaining but there's clear bootpaths to follow down to the lakes. With it being so warm currently, even overnight, the snow was very soft even before the sun got to it, so I essentially just skied down to Rampart lakes without issue. Little snow remains around any but the uppermost lake and nothing lower down, the upper lake was frozen in the morning but significantly melted just in the duration of my hike and I could hear it breaking up on the way out. I started encountering some campers around the lakes but it was relatively quiet this morning for this popular area and I crossed paths with maybe 20 hikers total all day.
There are way too many social trails in the Rampart Lakes area, but they all eventually funnel you the right way to the lila/rachel/rampart trails intersection. The trail up Alta's ridge and to the summit only has a few tiny snow patches remaining that pose no difficulties and is otherwise mostly just a steep hike with a couple of easy scrambleish moves. The views are panoramic from the ridgeline of the whole gold creek drainage and box canyon.
Spent a good amount of time with the summit to myself. On setting off back down I came across a large mountain goat that had taken up residence on the ridgeline. He stared at me for a while but eventually moved off trail onto a slope out of the way without too much fuss.
Retraced my steps back past Rampart Lakes and then up steep snow towards the top of Rampart Ridge. There are clear boot paths to follow past the uppermost Rampart Lake here, the snow is ~35-40 degrees at its steepest, but only briefly. Stayed on snow instead of seeking out the trail and wrapped around further south of the ridge than the trail shows. Found some old tracks that got me up above the highest snowfield and onto the top of Rampart Ridge. The way back down from here follows a nice snowmelt cascade and a series of ponds until it meets back up with the backdoor trail and back to the lot.
Arrived back at 1pm. Surprised to see maybe a dozen cars parked at the TH on the way out with not much room for more. The bugs were definitely getting thicker on the way out, and I was glad to be out before the heat really set in today!
RT: 10.1 miles 4100ft gain
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