We had a difficulty finding a trailhead/entrance. I attached a rough route we took to find the trailhead. There's still lots of snow after 5000' and hard to find a trail. You may need a GPS/map/compass to navigate. Good workout and the view was beautiful. RT 14 miles/4300' gain I lost my Black Diamond gaiter somewhere on the trail. Please leave a comment If anyone finds it...

Very nice hike with excellent open ridge walking up to Elbow Peak and beyond. Nice variety of wildflowers. The trail starts at as a road but becomes more and more trail-like after a couple miles. No snow up to Yellow Hill. The traverse along the East side of Yellow Hill has some steep patches of hard snow that I avoided by ascending off trail for a while. Great views after passing Yellow Hill. Currently there is quite a bit of hard and steep snow before reaching Jolly Mountain and it looks like the trail going up the Southeast side of the mountain crosses some steep snowfields, so I turned around a few miles past Elbow Peak. I think this would make a nice scenic approach to Jolly Mountain once the snow has melted, long but doable as a dayhike. Trail seems pretty well defined most of the way that I covered and not too many blowdowns, all easy to pass. Didn't see anyone else on the trail.

After some issues finding the beginning of the actual trail (the road to the campsite on the map was gated and closed, the first section of the trail we took was overgrown enough to be mistaken for a deer trail, honestly) went up the easy to follow trail, minus a couple logs across it. The first couple of miles are pretty exposed. Then you cross a bridge and get into snow. Trail is pretty easy to follow thought, only one or two spots where we wanted the gps on the phone to see which way the trail went. The snow is relatively steep so crossing across was scary. But doable. We got to the top of something or other 5.9 miles in and GPS said that the actual peak was on the right of us and covered in snow. So we had the 6 miles in distance wise but were still missing 400 ft for elevation gain. And then we just decided that it was late enough and there were snow showers on and off and the whole Jolly slope looked like all snow going up... so we got lazy and didnt' go:P Still good views though

Grrrr! don't forget to screw on your ski pole baskets before you leave home! I did and paid for it. This report is really about a snowshoe hike up the Jolly Mt road near Salmon-la- Sac. There was snow on the Salmon-la-Sac road on the way up, but there were melted out tire tracks all the way. It would be passable by a two wheel drive car. At the start of the JM road, there was just under a foot of snow. I was at that time only sinking in with my snowshoes about and inch or two. That gradually changed as I ascended. Around 40 minutes into the hike, it became much more difficult, as I was going in about a foot, and my poles (w/o) baskets, were going all the way to the road, about two feet. This made for intense exercise (read, exhausting), and I turned around at one hour when I reached what I call the first lookout. From here, you can see the Cle Elum River below and the start of the road you come in on with the Sno Park parking area. Also, from here you can see great views of mountains to the west and north, but not today. It was foggy, misty, and cloudy with occasional snow/rain drizzle. I will use skis next time on this trip, as they sink in less than snowshoes and allow an easier descent. All in all, it was fun couple of hours in the snowy mountains. I got my exercise. Last year, with the ridiculous lack of snow, I never did get to ski or snowshoe.

This is my first trip report. I feel compelled to write due to the abysmal conditions that we found on jolly mt trail 1307. I am not a whiner. I am good with distance and with steepness. Bumpy road to trailhead OK. I can even tolerate a fair amount of bugs. The condition of this trail is to be avoided! The first half mile is brushy and a bit hard to follow. The next 1.5 miles is such damaged trail! Motorcyle damage yielding long stretches of loose rock and dirt. Veryunpleasant. There is a half mile stretchof pleasant trail where you are lulled into thinking that the Hell is done. Alas then you encounter 2 excavators parked to the side of the trail. The next two miles you slog through their attempts to " improve" the trail. A wide swath of loose dirt and rocks. All in the name of progress! We speculate to improve access for the motorcycles that ruined the lower stretch of trail. To be fair we only encountered one motorcyclist. And the upper one quarter of the trail was nice and the views at the top stupendous. For my money, I'd choose Davis Peak over Jolly Mtn anyday!