r/PNWhiking

Had so much fun out here! Here's all I did:

. USA vs Australia game!

Olympic National Park,

Mount Storm King, 4 miles.

Mount Angeles, 6 miles.

Salt Creek Recreation Area hiking, 7 miles.

Mount Rainier National Park,

Skyline Loop, 7 miles.

Naches Peak, 1.3 miles fun scramble!

Stafford falls, 4 miles

Stopped in Chelan, and Leavenworth on the way to NCNP. Leavenworth was cool, but Chelan was such an incredible town. Had a blast walking around the lake and watching the wc games.

North Cascades National Park,

Sauk Mountain, 3 miles.

Cascade Pass, Salahe Arm hike, 18 miles.

Thorton lakes and Trappers Peak, 15 miles.

Only bummer this trip was the weather at North Cascades, barely got to see the views I have seen for years. Still was amazing though! Really a fantastic state.

Hiked on Friday (July 3rd). Parked at 7am and there were a ton of people from the trailhead up till the first overlook of Snow Lake, and then we didn’t run into hardly anyone else from then on. Despite being packed, everyone was super friendly and we got a ton of phenomenal views, the American Pikas on the trail were so fun.

I hiked this 35 mile just under 9k elevation slog over the 3rd and 4th. Trail report here: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip\_report-2026-07-05.151931527225

It was a fun and beautiful trail, but I think next time I'll do it over 3 or even 4 days. A 20 mile day then a 15 mile day while fastpacking was a lot, but worth it.

Goat Lake campsites are mostly under snow still. 1 or 2 more weeks and there should be better options opening up. The lake is entirely covered too.

This was a great trail to avoid the July 4th crowds. Hiked up in the fog, which was just burning off as I approached the summit. It was dry at the top, so the scramble posed no problem. I would not want to do that if it was wet. Reached the top, and was offered some cookies, and what I was informed was the best chocolate in the world (from Kazakhstan), by a pair of other hikers.

What an amazing place. Rolling clouds and partial views, but overall really pleasant weather.

Irritatingly, most dogs were unleashed, as usual :/

The road is very good, the usual potholes but nothing a sedan driven carefully can't handle. The parking situation was very good yesterday.

Pics from my camera.

Have fun and stay safe everyone!

Spent two nights up there, 6/30 and 7/1. Day hiked Park Ridge and off trail to Sprague lake for the first time. Climbed up north side of Jeff the second day before hiking out. Nice little trip! Saw zero mosquitoes first two days as it was chilly. There were a few at the end as it warmed up.

I’m planning to do a solo, single day push on Jeff this week. Is it mostly dry conditions to the snow crossing up high? I’ll have crampons and an ice axe of course.

Hiked some trails on the Paradise side of Mt. Rainier this afternoon and lucked out with some clear weather. What a beautiful place!

Unfortunately lots of people stomping the meadows so they can get 50 likes on their Instagram photo and quite a few with zero trail etiquette.

Please don’t do this

Good reminder why I avoid the busy weekends.

Saw a hiker blow right past signs telling them to stay on trail. (pic 1) Confronted her but just got a dumb stare.

Saw drone operators. (pic 2) I along with another hiker confronted them pretty forcefully. They apologized and claimed they “didn’t know.” Sure. Reported it to the next volunteer I saw, whatever that does.

Saw… well didn’t see them actually feed the chipmunk. Saw a couple with a bag of cherries giggling and taking a picture of a chipmunk eating a cherry directly in front of them. (not pictured) Didn’t feel like getting into plausible deniability bullshit. Shook my head and made a face. I’m tired.

This is a great, but super challenging (for me at least) loop we just did. Starting at the Green Canyon trail 793A to Hunchback Mountain trail 793, passing Devil’s Peak, down to Salmon River trail 742 was a grueling 18 miles and 4300 ft elevation gain loop. Oregon Hikers has a good write up on this that claims 15.6 miles but we clocked 18 - perhaps due to the various wandering around the Devils Peak lookout and Kinzel Lake.

The vast majority of elevation gain is found in the first ~6 miles of stunning NW forest. It felt like every half mile we turned a corner and found ourselves in a new biome with fresh flowers, ferns, mushrooms, and undergrowth. The challenges included steep and sometimes narrow trails requiring careful steps (poles required for sure) along with navigating fallen trees along the way of which there were plenty. The big payoff of this stretch was that we saw exactly one person: a trail runner who came leaping through a stretch of fallen trees like a gazelle after we had spent great effort to carefully navigate over them - if that was you I am not sure if I should curse or cheer but it was sure impressive.

The descent to Salmon River was equally challenging and beautiful. While we did see other hikers in this stretch, it wasn’t until the last 3-4 miles that it started feeling a little too peopled.

This trail didn’t give a ton of the breathtaking views we all love, but the challenging terrain, solitude, dizzying topography, and lush forest put this up there as a favorite for me.

Burrough mountain trail at Sunrise visitor centre.