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Day Hike - Lost & Manastash Lakes

Day hike to lost and Manashtash lakes

Mark Scheffer Mark Scheffer
July 19, 2020
  • Road rough but passable

  • The approach directions have you coming up Manashtash road and then hitting FS road 31.  This road is "gripping" in sections.  for about 1/2 mile it becomes a one track road you cannot pass oncoming cars except at infrequent pull outs.  This section is also highly wash boarded with a near shear drop of 100'-200' off the side  into the Manashtash creek ravine.  It is rough almost the entire way to the trailhead.  

    We returned going west and took FS road 3330 to FS road 33.  This turns into Tanium creek road. 3330 is very well maintained and FS road 33 is paved.  I could never recommend the approach that is listed for this trip to anyone having returned using the above roads instead.  For the most part this road system is well signed with directions to Ellensburg and Cle Elum as well.  

There is plenty of parking at the trail head and an outhouse.  The trail starts 100 yards up a gated gravel road to the south of the larger trail head parking area.  The trail, however, is unfortunately a multi use trail used by motorized dirt bikes.  We ran into two groups of them on the trail on our way out.  As a result the early part of the trail is badly eroded and rocky.  You can avoid the worst of it by staying on the gravel road for about 1/2 mile. The road serpentine's across the trail and you can catch the trail at the 3rd road crossing. This skirts the bad trail and it is relatively in good shape after this for hiking.  

Both lakes were very pleasant and relatively bug free.  We saw several groups on the way back out but only one camping party at Lost lake on the way in.   

As there are a number of trail intersections a map is a definite must.  You can extend it about 2 miles and 800' gain more by continuing past Manastash and catching a 4x4 road and running these to the west to catch a trail that will loop back to above lost lake.  One in our party did not want to do the extra 2 miles so we opted to return on the original trip posted route.   Overall the route did not feel like it was 8 miles and 2100' gain.  we agreed it seemed considerably less than this.  Round trip time was about 3 hours.  

Overall the trip was scenic but due to the length of drive to get there and the presence of dirt bikes (and their exhaust) for me this is a 1 and done destination.   If someone were to do this I would recommend finding a 2nd destination to make it a car camp weekend to justify the long drive to get there.