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Trip Report    

CHS 1 Hike - Devils Dome/Jackita Ridge

Good weather and good company on Jackita Ridge.

Barbara Folmer Barbara Folmer
August 22, 2022
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The trail is pretty good despite quite a bit of blowdown, but that was easy to climb over. We counted 62 switchbacks. I thought they were well graded and we did 3,000 ft of gain fairly easily.

    Stream crossing: No rangers had been to the trail, so calls to the ranger station were not helpful.

    • There is  a good wooden bridge over Granite Creek. It is not far from there to where there used to be a bridge over Canyon Creek. You will know early in the trip if you want to cross the creek or not.
    • Do not cross where the bridge used to be, head upstream perhaps 100 yds.
    • This was a late snow melt year. Reports from last year were that the creek was ankle deep mid August. It was higher than that for us (see photo below). 
    • Most of our group had no experience crossing streams. We reviewed good technique and everyone did great.

    Four hikers crossing a stream

We did Jackita Ridge as a day hike. The trail up to the ridge is beautiful with waterfalls and occasional views of peaks to the south. Smoke from the Wenatchee fires obscured the view a bit. I could smell smoke at one point. McMillan Park is beautiful with a good view of Crater Mountain. There are wildflowers and berries. One disappointment was that the pretrip hike descriptions I read talked about mountain views. McMillan Park is alpine forest. Other than Crater Mountain we would have had to hiked much farther, probably to Devil's Park to be above treeline.

There are some nice camps on Jackita Ridge. The only water in Mcmillan Park was standing bogs. The were several streams to cross on the way up.