Beautiful! have put off doing this hike for years, decided to do and was suprised at how great of a hike this was. Trail in good condition. passed a group on our way in, who had backpacked at the lake. Wildflowers blooming.

This was a delightful hike to a sweet little lake. No snow on the trail. A couple of easily negotiated blowdowns. A couple others looked to have been recently cut up.

We decided to ride our bikes and soon realized that there was alot of problems with that, first were all hikers and rarely ride so the uphill was tough for us and the entire down hill was covered in fallen trees, but made for a fun day of pushing and carring our bikes ;) The 2 little lakes were kewl but small.

Nice clear weather and comfortable temperature. Mosquitos pesky in some areas and parts of the trail are getting overgrown.

The threat of rain required a hasty change of plans for a 2 night backpack trip with 3 dads and 4 kids. Little Clara and Marion Lakes looked like a good bet to miss most of the wet stuff. Too bad nobody told us that Squilchuck rd to Mission Ridge is closed this summer for a complete rebuild starting at FR 9712. A quick check of the map showed hope.... trail 1200 actually connects through to FR9712 on the other side. It would be longer but still doable. The Devil's Gulch trailhead (#1220) was full of vehicles with motorcycle and ATV trailers, but only 1 car at the Clara Lake trailhead. The hike to Clara lake from FR9712 is maybe 2 miles of up and down, but not nearly as steep as the beginning from Mission Ridge. Trail is in great shape as it meanders through silver forest, rock slides, meadows and forest. There is a good camp site at the south (outlet) end of the lake and another smaller site about half way up the west shore. We saw some day hikers but no other campers, it appears the closed rode has turned most folks away. Marion lake is very low right now and camping there would be difficult. However both lakes had nice cutthroat trout in the 12-14inch range. Water is very clear and the fish spook easily. Almost no bugs to speak of. Really a great trip for everyone.