Snow Lake Trailhead

Great hike, beautiful scenery, lots of streams to cross. It's mostly continuous elevation. Pack your trekking poles and your shoe spikes/yaktrax as it is snowy and slick at the last 1/2 mile as of May 31st. Best to use TWO trekking poles per person. Also, wear waterproof hiking boots that cover your ankles if you want to keep your feet warm and dry, as you will be crossing through a lot of little streams and a big stream/waterfall along the way. It is a very rocky trail so expect some sore ankles at the end.

Not a long hike, very busy and lots of people. Narrow trail, majority of trail has no shade. From start to the top is about 2.33 miles, with 1,564 feet elevation gain. From the top of snow lake trail to the actual lake is about .75 miles. Very rocky, recommend hiking boots. Water was not too cold, good. Ondiriona for swimming (there's a lot of rocks in the lake too).

Great hike! We started early am around 8am and it was quite foggy so not much views at first. About an hour in the sun came out and the views were gorgeous! It’s almost July and there’s still snow around the lake area. I had normal tennis shoes, but I HIGHLY recommend proper hiking shoes if you can swing it. (I’m visiting from Florida) there was a part of the trail that goes down to the actual lake but it was too full of snow for me to venture down. My friends who had better hiking gear attempted to hike down but stopped due to too much snow to pass through. But you can easily hike to the lake and lookout area of the lake. There are some areas you will get wet due to walking through small waterfalls. I saw many trail dogs, so it is safe to bring your dogs. There is a fork in the road where you can go and checkout a smaller lake lookout called “source lake” - it’s a little steep but I recommend! Overall wonderful hike with beautiful views!!!

With my mom (65-yr-old senior), we spent almost 4 hours on this trail round trip to the summit. Pretty nice view. High elevation. Rocky and bumpy road for senior. $5 for the day pass on this site. Nevertheless, my mom is very satisfied with this trip.

If you want to hike down close to the lake, bring shoe spikes. It’s still snow-covered and very slippery.

Nothing very difficult for the Snow Lake hike except for the slippery snow conditions coming down the lake side at the moment. Views can’t be beat. Elevation gain is very steady and probably the perfect hike. If you want a challenge and want to endure some pain, try the Snoqualmie Mountain hike. 1.5 miles one way with 3,000 feet elevation gain! I only went up .3 miles before the steepness increases, and then went for a lovely hike up to, and a little past, Snow Lake. Make sure to do a nice polar plunge! Lake is very cold so be careful. Parking can fill up decently by 11am, even on a Tuesday, but there was still plenty of space. Arrive early.

Absolutely gorgeous hike that is not too strenuous or tiring, about an easy to medium hike. Great views of Snow Lake and the Cascades, crossing many small water falls. Would highly recommend boots + spikes as there's snow almost all year round and it does not melt near the scary cliff areas😖. Bring extra socks as it gets wet with the amount of waterfalls crossed and going up riverbeds due to the snow melt On the way down, make sure you take the turn at the fork that splits off to Source Lake otherwise you will end up deeper into the Cascades.

- Get next to the lake to see the igredient!! - We came here on a Sunday and the huge parking lot was quite full, but we managed to get the last few spots around 10:30 am. Tons of people parked poorly, leaving less space for others to park. Be extra careful driving in the parking lot as people lack common sense and won't move when you drive next to them lol. There is a bathroom next to the parking lot, but they ran out of toilet paper when we came down in the afternoon. There is a sign talking about explosives, but we believe it'd be fine if we stay on the trail lol. The road condition was alright, and the higher you get, the more rocks there are on the road. I didn't think it was particularly difficult as my friends and I were talking nonstop. Once you get to the top, you get to choose to go to the left for the overlook or go down further to get closer to the lake. I did the former the first time I was here, and surprisingly I had the energy to walk further this time. We went all the way down for the lake and that part was more muddy. We didn't go to the lake access, but stayed on the trail to the right and got to an area with less people next to the water. Our friend even jumped in for a swim. The weather was extremely nice, so it was a bit hot eating lunch there for like 30 minutes. The view was totally worth it as you can only see the beautiful igredient of color from green to blue when you get close. Each way is about 3.2-3.3 miles. We spent 2 hours up and 1.5 hour down. I burned 902 calories based on my watch. There were tons of people on the trail and tons of dogs too. I actually didn't see a lot of parents with children on their back here. We did witness a kid crying because he didn't want to go down to the lake as he could see the lake from the top. Poor guy must be exhausted... The parking lot was still quite full when we came down, but there were more space in the back (about 60% full). Make sure to wear hiking boots as the road near the top was almost 90% rocks.