Miles: 7.6 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 100/1200ft
Map: Green Trails Stehekin 82 & Holden 113, my GAIA
Favorite Eats After Hike: Bear Foods Market, Steelhead Cider, Stehekin Pastry Company, Cole’s Bakery and Cafe, 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.
Hike details: The Stehekin River Trail wanders from the Stehekin State Airport along its namesake river towards the Weaver Point boat in campground run by the North Cascades National Park Service. It offers quiet forest and river views with the surrounding mountains off in the distance. If you have a bike available, it makes for the perfect jaunt while waiting for the ferry to take you back down to Lake Chelan.
My trip report:
10/16/2022
I had just enough time after checking out of the lodge to ride my bike up towards Harlequin and hike the Stehekin River Trail a mile or so to where you can drop down to a bend in the river and views open up.
Where it starts at the end of the airstrip, the trail is a swath cut into tall grass with a few beleaguered boardwalks and one leaning foot bridge. At about 550ft, it T-boned the abandoned end of the Pit Road and turned left.
Here I sauntered through deciduous fall foliage and the mountains peaked through to my left before heading into more dense evergreen forest.
At about .65 miles the rooty trail ran close along the river through arching trees and peering down, the clear teal blue water held sunset colored salmon in holding for their trip back up steam.
From there the trail took a climb up and around a swale before dropping me back down to the river at 1 mile. I was able to walk out onto the sandy bank and peer across at the scrubby slopes holding Rainbow Falls and Pass.
This was my turn around point and my walk back held more views of surrounding summits and patches of autumn color. I’ll definitely return next year and trek all the way to Weaver Point when I have more time.
Directions: This hike is only accessible while visiting the quaint town of Stehekin. The two most popular ways to get here are to hike in on the Pacific Crest Trail from Rainy or Stevens Pass or boat in on the Lady of The Lake from Lake Chelan. The airport is about 4 miles from the landing at Stehekin, turning left towards Harlequin campground. After crossing the bridge, the gravel road continues straight. The first left is the campground, you want the second one. This gravel road continues past the national park maintenance area and back to the airport.
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