The group of Thomas Lakes, including Thomas Lake itself, is super-close to the Thomas Lake trailhead….yet the trailhead itself is pretty far-from-anywhere. Thus the charm of Thomas Lakes…hard-to-get-to, and thus less-crowded.
From Thomas Lake a trail continues about 2.5 more miles to the popular Blue Lake. Blue Lake is along the PCT trail and nearer-to to the typical Indian Heaven Lakes-circuit hikes…..and thus it is often pretty popular and crowded on Aug/Sept weekends.
Here are a couple overview maps of the Thomas Lakes and Blue Lake area. Shown on the first map is the road I describe in Curious Gorge which allows a sort-of loop drive to access the Thomas Lake Trailhead. Road 6507 is a good road which connects with the Wind River Road at MP 29. Curious Gorge has the details about this road and its twists and turns. To me Thomas Lake and its neighbors are much more fun to visit if you don’t have to drive the same access road both out and back.
Curious Gorge Blog 