The Lost Creek Wilderness area is a beautiful hiking and camping destination.  I would suggest it for more of an overnight area than a dayhike, though, because there is a long ride in on dirt roads to get to the trailhead.  After turning onto dirt roads, the shortest way is 14 miles to the trailhead, and at 25 mph, this takes awhile.   Better to stay and enjoy the area after you put up with the roads.

We have been to the Lost Creek Wilderness area (near Deckers) two times.  The first time was too early in the Spring (it might have been March or April) and there was a large amount of snow on the roads and trails in the Lost Creek area.  We almost high-centered the car on snow, and could only hike a short way without snowshoes.

The second trip was at the end of May, 2000.  There was no snow to be seen, although we heard the pass at 10,500 had a few inches and was muddy, but you didn't need snowshoes.  This trip was on Memorial Day weekend, and we chose to hike in partway on the famous Lost Creek loop hike, and the trailhead was packed!  There were no parking spaces available.  The good news is that many of the people only hiked in 0-3 miles, and most of the dayhikers only made it that far as well.  If you do the 23 mile loop, or at least hike in 5 miles or more, you will see very few people, even on a crowded weekend.

The views are incredible, and you will get many vistas as you hike along with very little elevation gain.  One fantastic spire or outcropping after another will come into view as you are hiking.  We hiked counterclockwise, and went in about 6 or 7 miles.   We were going to hike the loop, but instead decided to see if we could get on top of some of the formations we had been hiking past.

We chose a camping spot up on a hill about 100 yards off the trail, and even on a crowded weekend, were completely secluded the whole time.  There are so many camping spots at Lost Creek there is no way you would have to camp next to someone unless you wanted to.

After setting up camp, we hiked up to the top of a ridge, and then began scrambling/bouldering to get to the top of a formation.  This was very fun, and we had to do some exposed 5th class moves to get on top of both of the huge formations we climbed.  Once on top, not only are you treated to fantastic views, but also the top of the formations themselves are very interesting, filled with potholes and slots (be careful!)  I highly recommend taking at least a few hours to climb around on the formations rather than just doing the loop hike and looking at them from afar.  But either way, hiking or climbing, you can't go wrong.  The Lost Creek Wilderness area is an incredible destination.