Shooting For Red Mountain Lookout And Settling For A Wart

The hubs and I are getting ready to celebrate anniversary #6 and it has me remembering #3 when in 2021 when we drove down to the Columbia Gorge and stayed at a tiny house AirBnB in White Salmon so we could visit our favorite Hood River cidery and spend time outdoors. As always, the weekend didn’t go as we had planned but that’s the beauty of life, I suppose.

We had found a possible snowshoe route up past Carson close to the Pacific Crest Trail that would end at lookout on Red Mountain if we could make it up the forest road far enough. The views in the guidebook looked promising enough and it wasn’t too far of a drive from where we were staying. I had also read a recent trip report for the snowshoe on WTA. In case you are wondering, there are multiple Red Mountains in Washington State. This one is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Southwest Washington.

Let’s just say we were able to make it to the route but it wasn’t the grand adventure we had hoped. Or maybe it was?

I don’t remember exactly where the snow began on the forest road but it became pretty deep about 2 miles before the intersection for FS 6048. The biggest problem was that there were no good pullouts and the ruts butted up against berms 1-2 feet high. My husband might have tried for further but we were slipping pretty good and I had no desire to get the Sequoia stuck for our anniversary. Again. He was feeling disappointed because the route had been his idea and we weren’t going to be able to drive up to the junction but I was doing my best to roll with it.

After carving out a pullout for the car with a snow shovel so we wouldn’t get stuck, we parked and got ready. I strapped my snowshoes to my pack and put on microspikes so as to speed the walk along. The road had compact ruts from high clearance vehicles as well as icy, sloppy sections and my boots did not have the traction I would have liked.

The added road walk would give us less time to make it to the lookout but we were here and we might as well give it a go. Who has time to decide another place to go and then take time to drive there? If you have been a couple, you know it can often be worse then deciding where to go for dinner.

We had been walking for about an hour when we heard the sound of engines coming up the road.

Soon, we were presented with a parade of high clearance trucks. Here the hubs is hopping back onto road after what we hoped would be the last one.

When we reached the junction with FR 6048, we could see they had grouped up and it was obvious this was a staging area for their winter fun. We made the turn onto FR 60 and left them to it.

The snow grew deeper and deeper the further we went but we were not done with motorized folks yet, we let them pass us once again as they continued further into the mountains. I wondered how far we would have to go to leave them behind…

It sure was a pretty day, though.

A little after 11am, we turned onto Red Mountain Lookout Road and it held the promise of providing the solitude we had hoped for.

These are some of my favorite kinds of snowshoe routes, plenty of powder and surrounded by a hall of snow dusted trees.

At about 11:40am, we decided that our pace was not going to find us at the lookout with a reasonable turnaround time. We didn’t want to repeat our winter Evergreen Mountain Lookout attempt, especially on a route we had not taken before. Thoughts of dinner and a relaxing evening kept us to a safer schedule.

So we cut back and took FR N538A towards the aptly named Wart in hopes of at least tagging one “summit” today. It was definitely going to be our consolation prize.

The trail grew narrower and more overgrown the further we went. The flakes picked up at times and we were surrounded by the sound of snow.

The official road made a curve about 12:15pm and it was obvious that this section is lost to nature for the most part.

It took about another 30 minutes to find ourselves on the summit, at least on the map. The Wart lives up to its name, treed for the most part and offering a little protection from the elements. I didn’t even try to take a decent picture, just a quickie and a screenshot that we had been there.

Being 4 hours in and more than 5 miles out, we decided to not retrace our steps but cut down the other side of Wart to FR 300. This is one of the benefits with snowshoeing, you are not limited to official trails or roads. It doesn’t always pay off, however, because there can be obstacles you aren’t aware of. Let’s just say I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures in this section and you can see our zigzagging on the map. It was a welcome sight to see the forest road again.

It wasn’t long before we were passing the gate on FR 300 and connecting with FR 60 again.

The skies even cleared for us as we finished the last few miles back to the car. We had to back down the road enough to find a bare patch so we could turn around without getting stuck (may have had to use the snow shovel again). And of course, the snow was super sloppy from the warmth of the day.

It was a lot of work for something as grandiose as a Wart but you can’t complain much when you spend the day outdoors with a loved one.

The next day we stuck to the Gorge with hikes Columbia Hills State Park-Horsethief Butte and the Historic Columbia River Highway to Mosier Tunnels. This area is one of our favorite places to visit, so many options for enjoying the outdoors.

You can find some more hike ideas for this area here on my Southwest Washington & Columbia River Gorge page. And if you have ever wondered what it would be like to live in a tiny house, trying them out on short rental basis is a fun way to learn. Here is the link for the one we stayed at on this trip.