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Copyright © Dan A. Nelson/The Mountaineers Books Killen Meadows - Adams Creek Meadows
Meadows: Lush, green meadows filled with fragrant wildflowers and juicy berries. High, alpine meadows with low, hardy heathers and grasses. Rocky subalpine meadows littered with rocks and patches of slow-melting snow. This route explores a rich cornucopia of meadow types. But these natural pasture lands for wildlife aren't the only draws to this route. From start to finish, the trail here offers outstanding views of Mount Adams and its many personalities. The rocky cliff faces, the crevasse-torn glaciers, the flowing white snowfields, and the noble crown of the summit are all visible most of the way up
the trail. Step onto the trail and immediately enter a wonderland of color. Wildflowers grace the meadows and open forest along the trail for most of its length, and throughout much of the hiking season. Early on, the bulbous blooms of beargrass wave you on, while later in the summer the trail is lit with brilliant displays of gaudy colors, thanks to the prolific wildflowers including paintbrush, marsh marigolds, shooting stars, columbine, and lupine, to name just a few. The trail climbs gradually through forest clearings and open, sun-dappled stands of old-growth for the initial 2 miles before running into a denser, cooler forest of old-growth. At just over 2.5 miles, the trail crosses a stream in the meadow, East Fork Adams Creek, and reaches the first of the countless possibilities for camping. This is the start of the meadow country, and the broad fields around East Fork Adams Creek are quite properly known as the Adams Creek Meadows. At just over 3 miles, the Killen Creek Trail dead-ends at the Pacific Crest Trail, at 6100 feet elevation, amidst heather meadows with wide-open views of Mount Adams. A faint way trail leads seemingly straight toward the summit from this junction. This is the route to High Camp, a rocky plateau at the edge of the life zone-the line where vegetation gives way to a world of rock and ice. High Camp, at 6900 feet, is often crowded on hot August weekends, so it's usually best to camp lower and visit High Camp merely as a side trip.
Driving Directions:
From Randle, drive 1 mile south on Forest Road 25. At the first main road junction, bear left onto FR 23 and drive 32 miles to a junction with FR 2329 (signed Takhlakh Lake Campground) and turn left onto FR 2329. Continue 6 miles to the Killen Creek trailhead on the right, elevation 4580 feet. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Water on trail | Snow on trail | Bugs
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This is one of the best hikes I've done. There were a couple patches of snow on the way up to high ...
This is one of the best hikes I've done. There were a couple patches of snow on the way up to high camp, but most everything has cleared now. The mosquitos were terrible neat Adams Meadow, we sprayed down first, but it didn't help that much, we started calling them motivators instead of mosquitos, if you tried to take a break they kept prodding you along, they only seemed bad in the one area. There were plenty of wild flowers blooming and great views in all directions. When we arrived at high camp I was amazed at the views and we even got to see 6 mountain goats. This is a great hike and I'd highly recommend it. It is fairly steep, made me realize how out of shape I am, but I made it and it was worth every drop of sweat.
Overnight
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Water on trail | Snow on trail | Bugs
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Killen Creek trail hits patchy snow about 1.5 mi from the trailhead. We camped at the 1st meadow at ...
Killen Creek trail hits patchy snow about 1.5 mi from the trailhead. We camped at the 1st meadow at 2.5 mi. I took a beautiful 2 hour evening hike up to High Camp after dinner. Patchy snow to the PCT but easy to follow the trail. High Camp trail is snow covered about 1/3 of the way up. Poles are useful. It's a little tricky to find the trail at times since others footprints don't always lead in the right direction. The views from the ridge next to Adams Glacier Meadows were outstanding. Mosquitoes were quite a bother when we were hanging out at camp so we ended up staying one night instead of 2. I'm sure that during a year with normal snow pack the bugs wouldn't be so bad by this time of year.
Killen Meadows - Adams Creek Meadows
— Aug 05, 2011
— Dickau
Multi-night backpack
Issues:
Snow on trail | Bugs | Road to trailhead inaccessible
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Lots of Snow, but oh so fun.
We arrived near the #112 trailhead around 7pm. We were planning on ...
Lots of Snow, but oh so fun.
We arrived near the #112 trailhead around 7pm. We were planning on going up trail #113 and down #112 for our two night trip, but there was too much snow for us to through to start at #113, so we started at #112 instead(If you have a jeep or truck you would get through to #113 no problem). We hiked two hours until dark through mostly huge mounds of snow. It was a little difficult to find the trail as there were no markings besides a set of footprints. We found a nice dry place to make camp at nightfall. In the morning we packed up and hiked up further to about 7000 feet, it got a little steep but the snow was easy enough to step in and you didn't sink in too far. We realized we overshot the Pacific Crest Trail by a ways and hiked back down to it. Crossing the creek there was a bit difficult because there was snow coving many parts of it and we didn't know what was good snow pack and what wasn't. We planned our route over the snow and rocks carefully and with treking poles got across safely. The hike along the PCT was beautiful with views of Mt. Rainier and St. Helens. We camped where #113 met the PCT. It was in a valley and there was a great campsite by the creek there. We hiked down the third day but we went too far east at killin meadows we think and ended up on some game trails that took us away from the actual trail. There was a bit of bushwacking and highstepping to do this way. We finally got down to the road after a few hours and hiked up the road to where we parked at #112. Overall, it was a beautiful hike, and was not too terribly challenging. The only issues we had was crossing the creek on the PCT and finding the trail sometimes. There was just too much snow to see where the trail went quite often. A lot of guess work and map referencing was done that trip.
Killen Meadows - Adams Creek Meadows
— Aug 01, 2011
— Klawatti
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Snow on trail
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The trail disappeared under snow at about 5000 feet. Camped near the Pacific Crest Trail according ...
The trail disappeared under snow at about 5000 feet. Camped near the Pacific Crest Trail according to the GPS. Mosquitoes were present. Day hiked to Adams Lake and noted snow free areas at High Camp and at the lake. I should have taken a GPS waypoint where the trail entered the snow. Locating the trail on the decent was a bit challenging.
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Snow on trail
Expand report text
Hide report text
Read full report
with photos
The trail disappeared under snow at about 5000 feet. Camped near the Pacific Crest Trail according ...
The trail disappeared under snow at about 5000 feet. Camped near the Pacific Crest Trail according to the GPS. Mosquitoes were present. Day hiked to Adams Lake and noted snow free areas at High Camp and at the lake. I should have taken a GPS waypoint where the trail entered the snow. Locating the trail on the decent was a bit challenging.
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 A camp along Killen Creek. Photo: Tahoe the Hiking Dog
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