Enough elevation gain to get you breathing mountain air, then views at the top to take your breath away. The payoff is a walk along Icicle Ridge at 3,000 feet, providing panoramic views of Tumwater Canyon to the West and Leavenworth Valley to the East. All manner of wildflowers accompany you all the way up the trail. Spring hikes don't get any better than this.

Length / Hike time: 2-2.5 miles up depending on how far you go on the ridge. 4-5 mile round trip. Took us 90 minutes to get up the trail, with multiple photo stops, and then an hour to get back down.

Elevation gain: 1,800 feet over 2 miles. Generous switchbacks, so it's only moderately steep.

Trail Conditions: The trail is well-maintained and in excellent shape. No mud or snow. Only two blown down trees. The switchbacks take you in and out of the forest at places but overall the trail is mostly shaded with minimal exposure. Trail was fairly busy today with hikers of all ages and paces and dogs of all shapes and sizes, but the switchback knuckles provide for easy passing, and the ridge top walk allows everybody to spread out and take in the payoff scenery at once.

Success! Finally our hiking destination coincided with blooming balsamroot -- the best specimens were at the viewpoint overlooking Leavenworth on the Icicle Ridge Trail.

We rose very early Saturday morning and headed for Leavenworth where we spent the day along Icicle Road. First stop was the Icicle Ridge Trail to the saddle (about 2 miles up) and then a short jaunt to the right to the viewpoint overlooking Tumwater Canyon and Leavenworth. Arriving at 8 am, we beat the heat and the crowds. The trail met and surpassed all our criteria for the perfect hike: views, flowers, and wildlife.

Though the flowers were not profuse on the climb, there were enough to make the journey colorful. As for wildlife, we watched a rubber boa slither across the trail (glad we didn't see any rattlers), lizards scurry into the rock, squirrels and chipmunks chatter from logs, and heard from other hikers that a momma & cub black bear were hanging out at the creek (unfortunately, we didn't see them). And birds: lots of bluebirds, some swallows, warblers, towhees, and a friendly nuthatch.

Returning to the trailhead about noon, we continued driving west on Icicle Road till we found a spot along the river to eat lunch. After lunch we continued farther down Icicle Road to Icicle Gorge where we hiked the 4 mile loop.

After climbing up and down to Icicle Ridge, our legs appreciated the level terrain of the Icicle Gorge trail. The raging water psychologically helped keep us cool since by now the clouds had vanished and the temps hovered in the high 80's. We were surprised to find numerous trillium and calypso orchids along this trail. We also spotted various colors of paintbrush from yellow to dark orange. Saw no birds or wildlife on this trail nor expansive views but the winding trail through beautiful trees with bridges over rushing creeks made for a very pleasant afternoon.

Amazing day to be on the trails...arrived at the trailhead about 11:15am with about a dozen other cars already there. Trail is completely dry up to the saddle, slightly dusty with wildflowers blowing, birds, butterflies and little lizards present. Trail seems to get progressively steeper with 22 switchbacks from trailhead to saddle. At the saddle (if not continuing up the ridge) go right for about five minutes, a little down and up on the trail to a ridge top overlooking Leavenworth with a 360 degree view. Paragliders were enjoying the warm day, a log with view of Leavenworth was my lunch spot.

I've driven past this trailhead at least 500 times in the past twenty years since I moved to Washington. And today was the day!

Wild flowers were plentiful but not in the quantities that some of the grassy hillside hikes of Eastern Washington have. Our best find was one seep crossing just a few hundred yards into the hike. It had quite a cluster of Chocolate Lilies. We saw them nowhere else.

We stopped at the view point 2 miles up the ridge. There were great views. The trail continues up and up. Really the sky is the limit as this trail runs all along Icicle Ridge for many miles.