The trail is boring, at least the first 3 miles before getting to the ridge. Easy and well maintained. Not much fall color on the trail to speak of, better on the drive here. Some color on the ground. The fallen leaves are mostly brown, rather than yellow or red. A lot of people coming down as we hiked in. There was some leftoever snow from last weekend near the ridge. I didn't bother with micro-spikes. Didn't have much problem. The snow on trail was treaded down, if not too muddy. Could see Glacier Peak and some other peaks. Near Virgin Lake, all white, looking like fat floating on top of soup, a young lady asked if it were Blanca Lake.
The trail was quite muddy, and steeper on the way down to Blanca Lake. The color today was fainter, maybe due to the thin clouds. Alwasy lovely. Had my sandwich on the rocks before going down to the waterfront. A couple was fishing, and posting photo with their catch. When we returned to the lookout rock pile, everyone was gone.
A solid 2 hour drive (~10 miles on potholed gravel road). A beautiful day and and easy hike to a beautiful destination.
