Mileage: a little over 4.6 miles
Elevation Gain/Highest: 870ft/4200ft
Map: Green Trails Snoqualmie Pass No. 207
Favorite Eats After Hike: Garlic Crush, Agave Cocina, North Bend Bar & Grill, Chang Thai & Pho, The Commonwealth, Basecamp Books & Bites, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
My Hike:
7/6/2016
We did a loop today up from Windy Pass, up the PCT to Mirror Lake and then back down via Twin Lakes and trail 1303 and then a road walk back up to our cars for a total of about 5+ hours. The PCT was well groomed with just a few patches of snow and plenty of mud. I don’t remember any blowdowns. We only saw one person. Mirror Lake was peaceful and not too buggy, probably because there was a slight breeze.
We opted to have a little more adventure so we took Cold Creek trail 1303 down towards Twin Lakes. This trail had quite a few more blowdowns, was overgrown, quite rocky and rooty (is that a word??) and more steep.
There is a nice wide log bridge at the outlet for Twin Lakes. The hike description for Cold Creek is pretty accurate, surprised the trail doesn’t see more attention.
We probably should have taken the trail 1348 for Mt Catherine but we weren’t sure what the conditions would be like so we headed out and took the road for a little less than 5 miles. The sun was out by this time and we caught some nice views. Overall a nice hike!
Directions: Drive east on I-90 to exit 62 for Stampede Pass/Kachess Lake. At the end of the ramp, turn right at the stop sign onto Forest Road 54. After approximately 0.5 miles you will go over a bridge crossing the Yakima River. Continue straight on this road for another 0.6 miles and then turn right, leaving the paved road, onto the gravel Forest Road 5480. Continue on this road. 4.2 miles into this section, go straight on the middle road and pass Lost Lake. 6.1 miles from the turn onto FR 5480, reach the sign for Mirror Lake. Most vehicles should stop here because the road deteriorates significantly, but I did see quite a few sedans making the last .5 miles to the trailhead at a snail’s pace.
Click here for more hikes on I-90.
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