Snow Lake
Snoqualmie Region
As of late July 2026, the trail to Snow Lake is in good condition, with no significant snow patches reported. A trail washout under a staircase about a mile up requires caution, especially for those with children or dogs. Trail restoration is ongoing in marked areas. Parking at Alpental can be very busy, particularly on weekends, with the lot filling early. Expect considerable hiker traffic, especially through mid-July. The lake level is down, and most waterfalls have dried up. Annoying no-see-um bugs and black flies are present.
generated from 137 reports
Sources
I arrived at 8:15am to the Alpental parking lot and there were many cars, but also many open spaces. The hike up to Snow Lake is in great shape except for one washout under a staircase about 1 mile up...
Great trail and beautiful weather yesterday!I also wanted to ask for some help. I accidentally left myblack Insta360 GO Ultracamera on the rocks by Snow Lake onSunday, July 26, sometime around1–3 PM.I...
Got to the parking lot at about 7:45 and it was packed, but still had some spaces available. I counted roughly 100 cars there already. The hike was great and the trail really well maintained. Humans h...
Busy trail, even later into the evening but well worth the effort.
Bottom Line:Forced to pick a Saturday to packraft with out-of-town visitors, and its was predictably VERY busy. But once we were on the water at the far end of the lake, complete solitude. Had planned...
Showed up around 8:30 or so and was totally in a cloud - it took quite a while for most of the fog to burn off yand clouds to roll out. The lake was out at the top which was a little unexpected given ...
The trail was well maintained. Lots of hikers this Sunday and a couple of larger groups.There are two large parking lots for the area. We got there around 9AM and the second lot was filling up quite q...
Massive amounts of people up until you get past Snow Lake, Gem Lake had a few overnight campers but wasn't packed, and hiked up to Wildcat lakes and only saw 1 other person. Then hiking out, even more...
Very nice hike in the sun most of the hard parts so prepare for that. Lots of youngins with Bluetooth speakers so if that’s not your vibe maybe pick something elsewhere. The lake is cold but refreshin...
Want to ask something specific about Snow Lake?
Use AI-powered search to dig into trip reports for this trail.
Search Snow Lake