We got a bit of a late start - feeding cells in the morning combined with a longer-than-expected drive out beyond Cle Elum resulted in a 12:30 start time. This meant that we were climbing up the trail at the peak of the heat of the day - with packs on - but oh well.
The first part of the trail is extremely flat, following the Cle Elum river up to Hyas Lake and Upper Hyas Lake. A little while after passing the lakes, we started heading uphill. The up-ness didn't take many breaks after that. We came to a junction and took a right, towards Tuck and Robin Lakes. I think that the trail up to Tuck was the hardest part - the trail wasn't graded very well, and the dusty steepness was pretty tricky. We stopped for lunch on a flat slab of granite - and also provided some lunch (in the form of our skin) to some local biting flies.
We eventually made it up to Tuck lake, which was quite beautiful. It had some amazing rock islands in the middle of it that I just yearned to swim out to - but alas, it was already after 5:00 and we still had another mile and 1000 feet in elevation to go to get to Robin Lakes.The trail up to Robin Lakes bordered on a scramble at times. Much of it was marked with cairns as it passed over granite, which doesn't lend itself well to trail-cutting. We passed a group of people who tried to convince us that there were no more campsites left at Robin - but then they admitted that they were just joking.
We went around a knob, then up some more granite, then up some more granite, and just when we thought we couldn't take anymore, we came over the crest of the basin and the Robin Lakes came into view. They are beautiful lakes, very different from Tuck and Hyas in that there are far fewer trees (and more granite) surrounding them. Just a tiny bit of snow remained on some of the north-facing slopes. 
Since the sun was beginning to set, we knew we had to find a campsite in a hurry. However, since the sun was setting, the light was all pretty, so we kept taking pictures and delaying our progress. Somewhat fortuitously, ks wanted to gain higher ground and climbed up on a bluff, where a perfect campsite was hiding (the rest of the good campsites having been long occupied that day). In between photo ops, we managed to get the tent set up and water purified, and mac and cheese cooked. We ended up eating in the dark, but that was fine. The stars were out and absolutely amazing - a late rising crescent moon meant we had completely dark skies. I saw at least a half-dozen shooting stars, including one that was particularly bright.
The next morning we got up early and took more pictures - for about 3 hours - before even eating breakfast. We met a fellow photographer who was there by himself - and agreed to swap photos once we returned home. While pumping water down by the lake we encountered some of the area's many resident mountain goats. They just sauntered down the trail, right past us, causing me to break out my camera in 2 seconds flat to take a ton of pictures. My favorite one is here:
Finally, we managed to eat breakfast, break camp, pack up our packs, and hit the trail at about 11:30. The way down was no easier than the way up - especially with packs on. We stopped at Tuck lake for a snack break and a chance to splash my face in the water (alas, no time to swim) and then proceeded on down. By the time we got to the flat part, we were pretty ready to be done - but we still had 4 miles to go. Towards the end of the trail we passed a large group that also included 2 horses. Finally, after crossing the aptly-named Skeeter Creek, we reached the trailhead and our car.
The ice cream bars and cherry cokes we had at the little general store we stopped at were to die for.
The rest of my pictures can be found here.
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