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Trip Report    

Day Hike / Scramble Bandera and Little Bandera

A day hike to Little Bandera followed by a short rock scramble to the true summit of Bandera Peak.

Jim Griffing Jim Griffing
June 06, 2025
  • Road rough but passable

  • The road to the Ira Spring Trailhead is a bit rough.  Most vehicles should be able to make it.

    The pit toilet was open and stocked.

    The trail is in good condition to Little Bandera.  There are a few small snow patches between Little Bandera and the true summit.  I carried microspikes but did not need to use them.  Microspikes might be helpful in the early morning if the snow is hard.  All the snow should be gone in the next week or so.

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    Small snow field between Little Bandera and the summit

I hiked the Ira Spring trail to the Bandera Mountain trail on a sunny Tuesday morning.  There were a few cars at the trailhead when I started at 9 AM.

I then took the steeper Bandera Mountain trail up to Little Bandera.  On the way up I met a former Chair of the Everett Branch - he said he had been hiking in the Cascades since 1973.  The trail was in pretty good condition and the wildflowers were starting to bloom.  There were no bugs.

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Wildflowers near the top of Little Bandera

I continued past Litte Bandera and soon hit several small patches of snow.  The snow was soft enough to kick steps into and plunge step down as appropriate.  Easy rock scrambling took me to the true summit of Bandera.  There was no one else there and the views were spectacular.

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Approaching the true summit

I spent a few minutes looking for the summit register but did not find it.

I returned to the trailhead the way I went up.  Car to car distance was just under 8 miles with 3450 feet of elevation gain.  The trip took about 6 hours including my lunch break at the top (and my long discussion with the former Everett Branch Chair).