This long but easy valley romp follows boisterous Phelps Creek to a mile-long broad flower-bursting meadow and a giant cirque beneath a formidable wall of towering peaks. But don't expect solitude, for Spider Meadow crawls with backpackers-brigades of them! The valley is large enough to disperse in, though, and Phelps Basin offers a quiet retreat from the meadow's loungers and shutterbugs and their tent cities.
The number of vehicles at the trailhead should give you a good indication of the popularity of this hike. Spider Meadow is one of the busiest places within the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
Head down the Phelps Creek Trail, an old road reverting nicely to trail. In 0.25 mile, after hopping across a refreshing creek, come to the junction with the Carne Mountain Trail. Continue straight, traversing pleasant forest and crossing several side creeks, entering the Glacier Peak Wilderness at 2.5 miles.
Continuing along Phelps Creek, the delightful trail marches gently up the valley. Pass through groves of big Engelmann spruce and by tailings of old mines. The area is littered with old mines, and a few doughty prospectors still work claims in the vicinity. At 3.4 miles cross Leroy Creek, which may be tricky in periods of high runoff. On the north side of the creek you may notice a trail taking off right. This is the start of the Leroy High Route, a challenging alpine route through the Entiat Mountains.
About a mile beyond Leroy, the trail actually takes a noticeable ascent, but still quite gentle, mind you. At just over 5 miles, break out from the trees to the edge of Spider Meadow (elev. 4750 ft). Now behold the beauty of an open U-shaped valley carpeted in brilliant wildflowers. Look up to 7646-foot Red Mountain, its rusty summit contrasting nicely with its necklace of snow patches. You can call it quits here, finding a nice place to lounge by Phelps Creek, or continue farther to more dramatic scenery.
The trail carries on, blazing right up the middle of the sprawling meadows. At 5.5 miles it crosses a side creek and then climbs through a cluster of firs and enters an upper meadow. Stare up at cascading creeks coming down off of Red Mountain and Phelps Ridge. Now hop across Phelps Creek, after which the trail steepens and reenters forest. At just over 6 miles reach a signed junction. The trail left climbs to Spider Gap en route to the Lyman Lakes-it's where all of the backpackers are heading.
Hang a right on the path less taken, and in less than 0.5 mile reach the head of the wide-open cirque called Phelps Basin (elev. 5400 ft). It's quite a dramatic spot, hemmed in by the vertical walls of 8421-foot Dumbell Mountain. Melting snowfields give birth to Phelps Creek here, where it tumbles through vibrant clusters of violet monkey flowers. Notice that you have the whole basin to your-self. The marmots don't count.
August 25th, 2007: Spider Meadows – Lyman Lakes
Lyman Lakes have got to be the most unique set of lakes I...
August 25th, 2007: Spider Meadows – Lyman Lakes
Lyman Lakes have got to be the most unique set of lakes I have seen in Washington. The setting, the lake color, even the meadows and rocks which ringed the lake seemed different. With dark clouds hanging low in the Lyman Lakes basin, pierced by occasional shafts of sunlight, it was an intimately magical experience.
I began my hike at 5:30am from the trailhead. While most people complain that the first 5mi section through the woods is boring, I found it soothing: it was a real pleasure to walk the beautiful tread and just switch off in anticipation of the wonders to come. An hour and a half after starting, I was at Spider Meadows. The meadows were as spectacular as always: towering mountains rising high on each side, lush greens and silvery Phelps Creek. The flowers were out, but looking a little tired: “We’ve done our bit, now leave us alone...”
I enjoyed the meadows as I ambled along to the far end and the seeming cul-de-sac. Halfway through, I took the wrong ‘social’ trail and blundered about for a good half-hour (even crossing Phelps creek 4 times!) before finally regaining the obvious main trail. A little while later I was at the junction with the trail to Spider Gap and the escape from Spider Meadows.
The trail to Spider Gap climbed steeply, but lots of fresh flowers (finally!) and ever more stunning views of Spider Meadows kept me entertained. Pretty soon I was at the permanent snow field of Spider Glacier, the gleaming white escalator to Spider Gap. Red Mountain rose up high to the left and streams/waterfalls cascaded off its flanks to disappear beneath the snows of Spider Glacier. The snow field was in good condition (firm but not hard or icy) and carried me gently upwards to the Gap.
Ominous clouds wreathed Spider Gap, and a cold wind picked up, which got stronger the higher I climbed. Fleeting shafts of sunlight would periodically give my spirits a lift in the gloomy conditions. Finally, I reached the gap and the oft-documented views of Lyman Lakes.
More dark clouds enveloping and obscuring the mountain tops on either side of the Lyman Lakes basin gave the place an extremely intimate feel. As I picked my way down the snow field towards the basin the views improved even more and the feeling of intimacy increased. (I had not seen a soul since I started my ascent of Spider Glacier; now I crossed 2 people heading up to the Gap. These would be the only 2 people I would see my entire time in the Lyman Lakes basin.)
Eventually, I was down by the pale blue shores of Upper Lyman Lake. Lyman Glacier at the start of the lake was large, and in charge. Blue ice floating in the lake nestled up against the base of the glacier. Small pools and streams cut through the reddish rock on one side of the lake, while screes tumbled down to the lake on the far side. Manicured green meadows at the mouth of the lake were cut by a wide, pale-blue outflow stream which snaked its way to the second lake and then on to the third...
I wandered over to Lower Lyman Lake through beautiful meadows (though stopped about a mile short of its far end). Another stunning lake: From up high I could see how the wide inlet stream snaked its way well into the lake and bleeded its blues to color the whole. Quite a sight!
The way back was uneventful and much busier: Spider Glacier had numerous people climbing up as I started down...
Go on this hike. The views are absolutely worth it. We left from Seattle on friday, battling some traffic along...
Go on this hike. The views are absolutely worth it. We left from Seattle on friday, battling some traffic along the way, but we made it to the end of the dirt road, which gets progressively worse as you drive (Don't worry, we made it just fine in a honda station wagon).
We stayed overnight at the Phelps Creek Campground, which has all the amenities except for running water. This was an advantage because we could get an early start on the trail, instead of having to meander our way down the miles of dirt road on the day-of. The phelps creek cg is just a little bit down the road from the point at which the road forks up to the trailhead. There are plenty of campgrounds along the way as well.
When we got to the trailhead, there were already plenty of cars there, presumably from others who had stayed on the trail overnight. We were prepared for the fact that this is a popular trail, and to be honest, I expected to run into more people. It really wasn't that bad.
As we made our way up the trail, we were able to avoid bugs in the earlier morning, but as the sun came up higher, they were pretty fierce. Nothing that a little bug spray couldn't solve. I only got 3 bites on the trip. After a good walk through the woods, you come out to the meadows, which really deserve the hype they get (enough said). Keep hiking through the meadows and cross phelps creek (not very deep when we got there). We were able to cross without getting our feet wet. We continued up to larch knob. This part of the hike will get you - be prepared for some steep switchbacks and make sure you've got some water to last you the way up. Don't forget to stop for a break on your way up - these are the best views of the valley and meadow. Right at the top and right before spider glacier there are a number of campsites, which were all available when we got there a 1:30pm (They never actually filled up when we were there). There is a creek there to get more water. We set up camp, got some rest and decided to tackle spider glacier. It's not that long, but fairly steep. Just bring two hiking poles and you'll be fine. It's pretty high up, so the air airs (hah) on the thin side, but the hike up is fairly short. We did it in about half an hour. The views are incredible up there, looking down on both sides. You can see when used to be the Lyman Glacier - thanks to all the mountain goats who farted too much methane.
We then glissaded our way down (its fast!) and stayed around our campsite for a while, resting and enjoying the views. As soon as it was dark out, an amazing night sky emerged. The altitude combined with zero light pollution made everything visible.
The next morning we packed up leisurely and made our way down. 30 feet away from our car, over 9000 bears showed up and ate our lunches.
Last year, a planned Spider Gap -- Buck Creek Pass loop was scuttled when my dad (aka ""Lodd"") forgot his...
Last year, a planned Spider Gap -- Buck Creek Pass loop was scuttled when my dad (aka ""Lodd"") forgot his boots on the porch at home. We ended up just doing a trip to Buck Creek Pass and High Pass. This year, we decided to do the other end of the loop. We camped for a night above Larch Knob, hiking up to Spider Gap in the morning.
Lodd, Mom, Boist, the Duck and I hiked together to Spider Meadows, starting at the gentlemanly hour of 11:45. The trail isn't all too dusty and horsepoopy yet. We lunched at the big rock right at the start of the meadows. The meadows are still blooming quite nicely and there is still a decent amount of snow on the surrounding mountains. Nice scene.
Lodd and I continued on up the steep, rocky trail to the Spider Glacier, while the rest turned around back to the car. At the crossing of Phelps Creek, my camera rolled down a rock and landed in the creek. I'm attempting to dry it out now to salvage the camera, but in any case there are no photos from this trip. STUPID, STUPID FOIST!!!!!!!
The main campsite on Larch Knob was taken already. Someone pointed us to a campsite not far from (but not too close to) the toilet that is also very scenic, perhaps more so, but much farther from water.
Mosquitos were mostly held at bay that evening by a good wind, but in the morning were pretty bad. While I'm on the topic, the flies were also biting like nuts on the Spider Meadows trail.
Next day we headed up the ""high route"" along the ridge to the West of the Glacier towards the Gap. Our camp was pretty much already on the high route, so we figured why not. It's a bit of a pain, the route sketchy, but the views are a bit better than the Glacier route, especially of Phelps Basin. You don't completely avoid snow, as there are still some patches on the ridge and you have to traverse the Spider Glacier right near the top. Poles were nice to have.
I scrambled up to the first bump west of the Gap to get a view of the impressive Lyman Glacier. Careful doing that if there are people hanging out at the Gap, there is lots of loose rock on this slope. Awesome views.
We went back down to our campsite via the Glacier. Much faster. I regretted not carrying up my rainpants for a great glissade. My dad glissaded for a bit anyway in his shorts.
A few trail notes: there is one annoying blowdown right at the beginning of the Spider Gap trail and a small wash-out on the steep switchbacks up that trail. Not a big deal, but maybe worth mentioning.
Our group headed out Friday for a 3 day weekend backpack to Spider Meadow area, the lightning storms we encountered...
Our group headed out Friday for a 3 day weekend backpack to Spider Meadow area, the lightning storms we encountered in the Leavenworth area soon blew over.
Road 6200 is in great condition,the short Road 6211 to Phelps Creek TH is a little rutted in places but ok for any vehicle.
The trail has numerous blow downs but all are easy to go around, under or over. Temps were very warm, but the trail has shady sections plus numerous welcome creeks; we splashed through and dunked our hats and scarves in the cool water at every opportunity.
Leroy creek is running high & fast, particularly with snow melt later in the day. We took off our boots, & given our heavy packs, we crossed with water shoes and hiking poles.
The trail is clear of snow to the Meadow, the patchy snow in the trees is melting fast with dry camp sites. Be sure to use a bear container or hang all food. Don’t forget sunscreen, assorted bugs are currently not too bad if a breeze or repellent sprayed here & there on hats & shorts.
We camped at south end & Saturday explored the meadow, crossing Phelps Creek at the north end. This wide creek is running icy cold, very fast and strong; by late afternoon the flow reaches knees or higher. Some crossed bare feet, some used water shoes, ""suggest everyone use caution here ""
After crossing, some of the trail within the trees is still snow covered and easy to break through. Some of our group with hiking poles & ice axes headed for Spider Gap with it’s stunning views, others to 5500 feet for great views of the surrounding terrain & meadow before turning around to take trail 1511 A to Phelps Basin. This glorious spot is often overlooked and a pristine favorite.
Numerous wildflowers are beginning to show, and in another couple of weeks will be hard to beat.
Enjoy and take good care of this very special place.
Hiked Phelps Creek (#1511 Spider Meadows) to Holden Village and dotted along for 4 days.
No snow into Spider Meadows....
Hiked Phelps Creek (#1511 Spider Meadows) to Holden Village and dotted along for 4 days.
No snow into Spider Meadows. We had planned to continue to the camp at the base of Spider Glacier, but creek crossing looked dangerous. We spent the night at the North end of the meadows (with the bugs and more bugs) then crossed in the AM while flow was lowest. (The creek crossing is at the top of a waterfall so you wouldn't want to slip.)
Day 2 was up and over Spider Gap and into upper Lyman Lakes (we camped there.) The word for this day is SNOW. Lots of it. and ice axe here proves to be worth packing the weight. The snow was continuous from the bottom of the glacier area all the way over and down to upper Lyman Lake. We did most of our descent in a sitting glasside (actually several.) Our camp at upper Lyman was nothing short of spectacular. The mosquitoes were also and in great number.)
Day 3 we descended to Lower Lyman Lake and on to Heart Lake (where we spent the 3rd night.) Finally the bugs thinned out and we had a refreshing swim in the lake. The trail between Lower Lyman and Heart Lakes was really brushy (that's normal for this trail) but certainly passable.
In the morning we were greeted with the source of last night's noise (2 beautiful honey colored bears, which dug up a stump next to our tent while we ate breakfast.) We thought we had been hearing the abundant deer in the area. We were also glad we had taken bear precautions with our food. No worries about the bear though as they aren't likely to mess with 9 of us together.
Last day we hiked the beautiful and perfect condition trail into Holden Village.
Overall we saw lots of deadfalls (easily negotiated) crossed several streams (where we had to remove boots and wade) and braved lost of bugs (bring repellent)
From Everett head east on US 2 for 85 miles to Coles Corner. (From Leaven-worth travel west on US 2 for 15 miles.) Turn left onto State Route 207 (signed for Lake Wenatchee) and proceed 4.2 miles to a Y intersection after crossing the Wenatchee River. Bear right onto the Chiwawa Loop Road, and after 1.3 miles turn left onto the Chiwawa River Road (Forest Road 62). Proceed for 22 miles (the pavement ends at 10.8 miles) to a junction. Bear right onto FR 6211 and proceed for 2.3 very rough miles to the trailhead at the road's end (elev. 3500 ft).
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