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Trip Report    

Day Hike - Knox Creek—Thorp Mountain

Beautiful weather made for amazing views at the summit of our hike to Thorp Mountain via the Knox Creek Trail

Claire Gatenby Claire Gatenby
June 03, 2019
  • Road recommended for high clearance only

  • This route up Thorp Mountain was a really fun way to get to the lookout.

    The switchbacks on the trail at the beginning are in really great shape, it is a very narrow trail so when you need to pass people it is a little tricky. Flowers are starting to come out, with different parts of the mountain at different stages, we saw Lilies, trillium, paintbrush, lupine, bluebells and more! It does feel like it's still a little early and another week or so more will be blooming.

    There was snow covering the trail just before the junction with the Kachess Ridge Trail, 1315. But this junction was clearly marked with signs. Following the Kachess Ridge Trail north, it was also snow covered (see photo) so we checked our map often to make sure we were going the right way. Just before we reached the junction with the Thorp Mountain trail (which was again snow covered but well signposted) we had to maneuver around a tree that's bent over the trail.

    The switchbacks up to the summit of Thorp Mountain were easy enough to follow with crossing some snow patches required. Poles were helpful for these snow patches because at times the slope made them quite steep.

     

Getting to the trailhead requires a bit of navigating. the road (Knox Creek Rd) off  French Cabin Cr Road is not on Google maps so we used a Green Trails map and Gaia to see where we had to go. When we got there they do have a good sign directing to the Knox Creek Trailhead. We got 1.5 miles up the road before hitting the bit that is badly eroded (see photo). We had a Jeep and a Crosstrek, the Jeep would have been fine but it looked a little close for the Crosstrek so we parked on the side of the road (after turning around to make sure we faced the right way to get out). There was only room for a few cars to park on the shoulder here so we were careful about parking close.

We walked half a mile on the road to the trailhead. The trailhead would be easy to miss, the 'parking lot' just looks like a bit of a turn out off the road, there is a weathered sign but it's up a tree with a very small pink ribbon trying to draw your attention (see photo).

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We were at a slower pace today taking us 2 hours to get to the summit. We enjoyed the views along the way and took several breaks on some of the steeper sections. The views from the summit were enjoyed by all.