Bean Creek Basin — Saturday, Jul. 19, 2025

Bottom Line:

PSA: Bear spray is serious business! If you carry break spray, best to carry soap as well (more on that embarrassing mishap below). Bean Creek Basin is a wonder - the flower meadows are something else. Mesmerizingly beautiful. I have not seen such a dense flower meadow in a long time. The basin with the orange-brown craggy headwall of Bean Peak (and surrounding ridges) forms a cirque of sorts, which currently sports a multi-colored mantle of grasses and flowers. I had only ~500ft more to climb to Bean Peak, and had planned to scramble the ridge, but ended up quite content with the beauty and solitude of the basin. This was something special - surreal in person.

Stats:

• Distance: 5-1/2 miles
• Duration: 3 hours
• Vertical: 1950 ft
• Road/Parking: NF-9737 is in good shape with just wash-boarding. The spur NF-9737-112 to the Beverly/Bean Creek Trailhead is a little narrower and rougher, but really doable by any car. There are no toilets at the trailhead. National Forest parking pass required. Parking for about 10 cars; only 5 cars today.
• Weather: Mostly cloudy with some sunny periods. The gray skies actually made the meadow color pop more than otherwise. 70Fs Bugs were not too bad, the horse fly whose bite left me bleeding notwithstanding!
• Water: There is water for filtering the length of the trail as you first follow Beverly and then Bean creeks. No need to carry water, although the creek at the meadow campground has very little water at this point. Two of three of the seasonal streams that cross the trail on the ascent are dried up as well.
• Flowers: The upper meadows were full of Paintbrush (red), Columbian Monkshood (purple) and Gray's Lovage (white), but this was just start of the show, with lots of other species like Columbine, Desert-Parlsey, Scarlet Gilia, Penstemon, Groundsel and Fleebane (among many others). Dried up remains told a story of an earlier Balsamroot bloom. 
• Trail: The trail is fairly straightforward - moderate the whole way. After 1/4-mile on the Beverly trail, you keep right to join the Bean Creek trail. The trail is dry and dusty, with 5 blowdowns (all easy to climb over). The trail crosses Bean Creek a few times, as well as a seasonal stream, with some pretty waterfalls (see video). It was very quiet and only saw a handful of other hikers. I was alone in the upper meadows - the closest folks being some campers down the hill. NOTE: This is a multi-use trail also open to bikers and equestrian, although did not see either, or evidence of either.
• Takeaway: Have to return to hike Bean Peak and scramble the ridge. Plan to do that late spring when there is more snow around for contrast, especially when looking across the valley to The Enchantments at the top. This is a good spot for novice backpackers, as the access is short and relatively easy. Right now, the effort/payoff ratio is enormous! Bean Peak is then an easy side hike from your campground.
• Bear Spray: I took bear spray - mainly for risk of a cougar encounter. I had cargo pants on and stowed in a side pocket (I never do this... always attached to my backpack). Somehow... the safety popped off and the spray released when I was bending over, soaking my crouch with bear spray. It felt fine... at first. Then THE BURN... OMG!! Now this is oil based... it is not like water is going to wash it off, believe me I tried (in the future, I will take SOAP). As it was... I was the guy soaking his (clothed) junk in the creek every 1/4 mile going down the hill. It was kind of like eating a hot pepper... drinking cold water helps when it is happening, but the moment you stop, it is almost worse! Needless to say, I stripped down when I got the car (not normally an exhibitionist, but all bets were off!), turned the AC on full until I was covered in goosebumps, managed not to get pulled over, and had a "milk shower" when I got home (yes, it works!). BUT I saw this bloom, so there is that :) We live and learn... and embarrass ourselves along the way :)

I will try to post a video of this hike later today. Higher definition pics are available at the Instagram link below and will also be included in the video.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.instagram.com/wta_alpinewanderer/
• https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=47125&view=species&subview=map&order_by=observed_on&place_id=&swlat=47.38704&swlng=-120.85699&nelat=47.45914&nelng=-120.75051