Great time to visit Carne to see the larches. Fresh snow added to the beauty.

Road: reopened October 10 after being closed due to fires in area. It is in excellent shape now with considerable maintenance and grading recently completed. 

Trail: In good shape and blowdowns recently cleared - made for quick going. A steep trail gaining 3500' in a little under 4 miles. Snow appears in patches around 4500' and continuous in basin and up to to summit, but trail is packed down from other hikers. Did not use spikes, although some may find them helpful.

Very busy even on a Wednesday with 40+ cars in parking area (some going to other destinations) so expect plenty of company at the top.

The road to this trail is surprisingly good for a gravel road. I drove over last night and there were already 12 cars in the parking lot. A few people left the trailhead before dark. The start of the trail after it spilts off, is overgrown and the trail is narrow. Some areas it is hard to pull off to let people pass. I was slow going but happy once I got to the basin. The larches looks to be mostly just pass peak, some are at peak. The snow on the trail was icy in places and there is a few inches once you get to the basin. I had to wear microspikes on the way down. 

The road to the trailhead is open!  It's in good shape, and the last section up to the Phelps trailhead is the best ever.  However, the toilets are all locked.  As for the trail itself, there are many downed trees, some requiring a bit of work to go on or under.  Regardless, it's all about the larches. They start at 6,000 ft high, right as predicted. The basins are beautiful, but if you can, keep going up to the ridge.  Lots of other fall foliage as well.  

These trails and the chiwawa river road are now closed due to the Pomas Fire.

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This is a beautiful hike and highly recommend if you're up for a steady climb to wildflower meadows and great mountain views. The first couple miles of the trail are pretty overgrown with vegetation and there are several downed trees to climb over. There are also some potentially sketchy snags still standing nearby so use caution on a windy day. Once you get to the scree fields, wildflowers are blooming all over, and pikas and marmots can be heard calling across the rocks. The meadow is thawed out, but it's still pretty boggy, so this is where bug spray will be helpful (we didn't really need it through the hike until this point). We didn't proceed to the summit since clouds began moving in, but a previous hiking group indicated there were a couple of passable snow patches before reaching the top. The forest road leading in is rutted and a bit slow going at times, but the last couple miles up to the trailhead has recently been re-graded and graveled. Rewarding and gorgeous hike!