Snowgrass Flat & Goat Lake Backpacking Trip – Goat Rocks Wilderness

Snowgrass Flat & Goat Lake Backpacking Trip – Goat Rocks Wilderness

On this two night trip, we camped near Snowgrass Flat and did a day hike to Goat Lake where wildflowers were in abundance and the lake was completely melted out.

ITINERARY

  • day 1 – Snowgrass trailhead to campsite: 5.2 miles, 1,500 ft. gain, 140 ft. loss
  • day 2 – day hike to Goat Lake: 4.5 miles, 785 ft. gain/loss
  • day 3 – hike out to Snowgrass trailhead: 5.2 miles, 140 ft. gain, 1,500 ft. loss

TRIP PLANNING

This was a quick backpacking trip to Goat Rocks with friends and family. We started at the Snowgrass trailhead and hiked in about 4.5 miles to a campsite off the Lily Basin trail. It wasn’t the best camp, however, so in the morning we packed up and moved to a much more scenic location.

Day 1: hike to campsite from Snowgrass trailhead

Wilderness sign

Goat Rocks!

view of Mount Adams

almost full moon

Day 2: day hike to Goat Lake

Two of us did a short day hike to Goat Lake. The closer we got to the lake, the more wildflowers we saw. They were especially thick at Goat Lake’s outlet stream.

day hike to Goat Lake

Lily Basin trail

the geology in this section is interesting: a waterfall over basalt, with craggy-shaped pinnacles above a large talus slope

happy backpacker

ridge with a mix of subalpine trees and talus slopes

Hawkeye Point

Goat Creek valley and Goat Ridge (on the right)

approaching Goat Lake

Goat Lake with no ice! Two years ago in August, it was almost fully covered

continuing on the Lily Basin trail past Goat Lake, turn around for this view of Goat Rocks

Goat Rocks!

Goat Lake from above

wildflowers were super abundant near Goat Lake’s outlet stream

Mount Adams and Goat Creek valley

crossing the talus slope, we could hear picas “meeping”

reflections

sweet campsite

view from camp

at sunset, Goat Rocks lights up with an orange glow

Mount Adams is all pink skies at sunset

Mount Adams looking dreamy

hiking out