Attempted to get to the TH today, but the road was snow covered and impassable to any vehicle about half a mile after the turn off of FR 4308 onto Knox Creek. There was space to park near the snow line on the road, but we were dissuaded from walking to the TH by the amount of snow remaining, as it looked like it would be a slog. I want to reiterate what previous hikers have said about the GPS coordinates being incorrect and taking you down FR 4312 to the Thorp Lake TH. FR 4312 is a right about 3.5 miles from the main road. To get to this TH continue another 1.5 miles past 4312 to Knox Creek.

The road to the trail is in its typical bad condition, you definitely need at least a small suv for the 2 miles from the main road. There are patches of snow and within the trees there are fields of snow. Most of it is packed down by hikers, but we wore micro spikes with trail running shoes and only had a few small slides. Not many fall colors, but gorgeous views with the snow.

I tried using the gps coordinates to get here and they go to a dead end road that passes the other thorp mountain hike (1316, thorp lake) FYI. Use the written directions instead.  The sign for the trail head is small, attached high on a tree, so once you go up the hill that says thorp creek, make sure you pay attention once you’re close to 2 miles. 

Note: Bow hunting for deer started today Sept 1st in this area, so wearing bright clothing might be recommended.I wore my neon green Seahawks jersey for this reason. I met a couple groups of hunters up on the ridge between Thorp Mountain and Hard Knox. They were nice and friendly. One of them was hunting for bear as that season is still going on in this area.

Awesome hike!! Views were fantastic. Mt Rainier was shrouded in the clouds today and so were the mountains to the west. When I was on the top of Thorp a couple of I believe Navy jets came shooting up Kachess Lake heading north 2000 ft below and then flew north and went thru a gap to the west of Mt. Daniel and then circled around before flying of somewhere north. They looked to be a Navy prowlers from most likely NAS Whidbey. This was at 10:00 am. It was pretty cool. I assume there were many other hikers in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area that saw them also.

After hiking to Thorp I went up to Hard Knox. This had a very cool view and it was neat to be able to look over and see Thorp as these two peaks are at the same elevation.

Awesome area and I was done with hike at noon.

The road directly going up to the trail head was TERRIBLE. In absolute crappy condition. We had to go really slow. Even then there were many uneven rocks and divots. There was one really bad divot that we got stuck in and had to back out of. We parked the car in a little parking spot on the side of the road and decided to walk the rest of the way to the trail head.

We gave it about 10 minutes of walking before turning around and leaving. The bugs were an annoyance and flying into our ears (our bug tolerance is pretty low too). Every time we stopped for water or sun screen we would get swarmed by flys, moths, and some bees. There were also not a lot of cars passing by and we felt slightly uncomfortable doing a hike that is lesser known (due to previous experiences). It was also extremely hot out.

Long story short, we didn't do this hike, turned around, and did a short hike at Denny Creek instead. **And went to Snoqualmie Falls Brewery afterwards which was very tasty.

This is what I would describe as a steep hike.  It's pretty much all uphill except for a short stretch of relatively level trail along the ridgeline.  Some of the trail is very steep.  The trail is narrow for much of the first mile with heavy growth on both sides of the track.  It is easy to step off the trail if you are not careful.  Near the top of the first ascent it steepens noticeably.  Once on top you will reach an intersection with the Thorp Mountain trail.  Be sure to turn to the right if you want to go to the lookout.  The next half mile is the easiest part of the hike.  When you get to within 1/2 mile of the lookout, the trail becomes very steep.  There are spectacular vistas in all direction to make the climb worth the effort.  We were lucky enough to have a cloud free day and Mount Rainier was especially beautiful.  Wild flowers were in abundance for the entire hike.