This is an off-trail route. Only come here if your navigation is up to the task of finding your way where there are no trails to follow, and practice Leave No Trace to avoid damaging fragile terrain.

Follow the Palisades Lakes trail to Hidden Lake. Here you will find a sign that states:

"END OF MAINTAINED TRAIL. Please stay on stabilized path to Green Park Saddle. THEN DISPERSE TRAVEL."

This is a great summary of LNT ("Leave No Trace") hiking principles. In fragile places where the number of visitors is low enough, it's best for each person to pick a different route, carefully avoiding treading on plants, spreading out the load of damage caused by our feet. But where the visitor count grows higher, it's better to concentrate the damage in a single location, sacrificing one spot so that others may thrive.

The climb up from Hidden Lake to the saddle is brutal. Super steep. This was once a maintained trail, but these days the lower portion is overgrown with trees while the upper part is loose, dusty, unstable footing. And did I mention steep?

Past the saddle, it's up to you. Scramble up to Palisades Peak on your right. Or head left to a pretty tarn. Or continue downward into the forest where there are several lakes. I found it super cool being in a place where others aren't.