My sense is that during the summer weekends the trail is packed with people for single file hiking all the way up. But I arrived on a rainy, cold morning and saw maybe twenty people (only four at the top when I arrived). The trail gains 1,000 feet in about a mile--equivalent to climbing stairs for a mile.
I couldn't stay long but it was worth the steps. And then it was time to head back home to my own little piece of paradise.