I’m still recovering from back surgery in March, so I was looking for an easy hike. I decided to try Noble Knob via the Dallas Ridge trail #1173. The access road is a lot better than the last time I did the Corral Pass road. I went Tuesday July 7th.

The trailhead has an “Open to uses:” sign, but there’s no sign with the name of the trail. The trailhead is at 5300 ft. There were no other cars in the parking lot. I did not see anyone else on the trail. I took Zermatt and Chelan, two of my pack goats along.

It was a cloudy day so no views of Mt. Rainier. It seemed like there were not as many wildflowers as I remember from past years. There was one tree down across the trail and a few snow banks, but they were no problem. It’s about 4 ½ miles RT with an 800 ft elevation gain. Although there no real views due to the clouds, it was still a very pleasant hike. Almost no bugs.

General driving directions to the trailhead: Drive east on State Highway 410 to Greenwater Road FS #70 (1.7 miles past the community of Greenwater). FS road 70 is a paved 2 lane road. Turn left (north) onto Road #70 and follow 5.8 miles to Road #72. Turn right (south) onto Road #72 and follow for 7.3 miles to Road #7250. Turn left onto Road #7250 and travel 2.0 miles to Road #7250210. There is a small 210 sign in the small trees at this junction. #7250-210 goes straight, #7250 angles down to the right. Follow road #7250-210 0.5 mile to trailhead. Parking for 5-8 cars. FS road #72 is a pretty good gravel road with some wash boarding and a few pot holes. FS road #7250 is also pretty good gravel road, but there are more and deeper potholes.

Noble Knobb is a relatively easy hike. A few hills, but with enough platues to even it out. It was a very cloudy day as we started out walking toward the summit. Even being socked in with the clouds it was still a beautiful hike, very peaceful and quite with lots of blooming wildflowers and strawberry plants. Although we couldn't see much because of the cloud coverage we could hear the elk in the not so far distance, bugaling as we sat and had lunch at the summit. We decided we had better head back as the wind had picked up and it was getting colder. We were afraid the weather was taking a turn for the worse. As soon as we got our packs back on we noticed the wind had actually started blowing the clouds away and we suddenly realized the views before us.... Although we never did get to see Mt. Rainier we were able to see the other ridges across from the summit, green meadows and pristine lakes.
We even found that herd of elk...
Highly reccomend this hike and I'll definately be back, hopefully on a clear day.

This was a group trail run, training for the White River 50 mile run. We started at Buck Creek (road 7160) and took the White River trail out to The Dalles. This is a gently rolling trail that goes by the Boy Scout camp. There was only one blowdown. Then we turned up the Palisades Trail and the going gets much tougher. The trail switchbacks steeply up to a set of stairs. It is a beautiful area, but today it smelled like there was a dead animal in the bottom of the canyon which wafted all the way up the hill. After the stairs the trail mellows out a bit but still climbs steadily to the first viewpoint. Rainier just peeks over the opposite ridge, and Suntop lookout is also in view. After climbing another miler or so the real reward is revealed. Beautiful panoramic views of the valley below including the river, the airstrip and Mt. Rainier in-your-face style. Then the trail turns away from the ridge and to a cabin. From there we continue up on The Dalles Ridge trail and follow that until it ends at the Noble Knob trail. We turned south there and climbed around the ridge through some snow patches and glacier lillies. The trail levels off just after the Noble Knob turnoff and is just rolling hills (with the exception of one thigh burner) until we reached the road at Corral Pass. This top part is in full sun exposure, and today sunscreen was necessary. But the views or Mt Rainier were spectacular. The huckleberries are numerous, but not ready to eat yet. We met a crew with water and snacks there, then turned back and retraced our steps. At the cabin, we took the Ranger Creek Trail down. This trail is popular with Mtn Bikes. Lots of shade, soft tread and switchbacks on this gradual hill, in our case it was going down, down, down, and down until we finally reached the road just across from Buck Creek. This made for a ~25 mile loop, and a fabulous day!

Gate locked less then 1 mile in on road 7174. Parking at the gate is for the Ranger Creek trailhead, with access to the Noble Knob via a 4 miles of steep switchbacks.