I absolutely loved this hike! It’s not “easy” by any means, and the 9 miles round trip (including hiking around a portion of the lake) took me about 4.5 hours. It’s completely worth the elevation gains though! I arrived at the trailhead at 6am on a weekday, and that was such a good idea because by the time I got back to the parking lot it was packed and cars were parked for almost two miles down the road. Definitely go early and bring cash for parking fees - it’s $5, but the machine was broken and luckily I had $5 in cash for the forest pass envelopes.