10.5 mile loop with 1,722 elevation. Weather looks good for Tuesday. Anyone hiked it? Any advice?

I couldn't find a hiking forum; is it okay if I post this stuff here? If there's a better or more appropriate forum, I'd be happy to do it there. I'm hiking to improve my fitness so I can hike to even more places.

AllTrails: Goat Lake Trail

Hey, that's my backyard.

Loop is my closest get away, but never went out Elliot.

Maybe try the hometown forum for some more local knowledge?

It's been awhile but it's a great hike, especially for getting some distance in.

Trail was easy to follow from what I remember

Lake was fun to explore

It's on the mountain loop highway, right?  Lots of fun places along there

2 of those reviews are saying the road to the trailhead is closed, making it alot farther walk, I guess?

This one is awesome:

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/crystal-lakes-trail

Crystal Lake.  Beautiful spot, not crowded at all.  We've done this one a couple of times, love it.  

When you get to the small firstLake, you think "this is it?", but keep climbing, and you are rewarded!

It's on the other side of the ridge from Crystal Mountain ski.

We last did  it in late July, no snow.

Main lake up top, view from the ridge above.  We had lunch on top of the big rock to the right.  Tanked up on the water with my Sawyer Mini. Very refreshing!

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Howdy, neighbor. I'm in the Skykomish Valley, the next valley south of you. I've spent many a night falling asleep in the bed of my truck to the sound of the Sauk River.

I'll post in the WA forum next time. Thanks.

Thanks for the information. Yep. At Elliot Creek, as Tanren37 said.

Good catch, thanks. I just got around to looking at it detail today. That's not going to work for me.

Crystal Lake looks awesome but it's a long drive. I was just up on 410 a few weeks ago. Gorgeous country. I go camping along the American River from time to time. This would be a great hike for one of those visits and I save it for that.

Cool. I'll be posting the next one in the Hometown pages, for WA state. Hope to see you there.

Mountain loop between Barlow and bedal is still closed and may not open at all this season. There is heavy damage to the road from this winter.

An option in the same area could be Monte Cristo ghost town, 8mi round trip. If you got to the town and were feeling good you could push a couple miles further to silver lake. I've never been down to the lake but have passed it using the same trail on the way to twin lakes. Glacier basin and Gothic basin hikes also depart from the same spot at Barlow pass.

Last time I was at goat lake there was ironically a dead mountain goat floating in the lake