What a beautiful and remote hike!  We didn't see too many people and enjoyed solitude most of the time. Wasn't quite as steep as I expected, but I may have been a bit biased by my Bandera hike the week before. Cars beware! We didn't actually make it to the trailhead with our car (some trucks did!), but luckily there was a parking spot just for us about .7 miles from the trailhead!

I got a few fly bites at the top, but otherwise the bugs weren't bad at all. I wish we had started on the trail earlier in the day to avoid some of the heat - next time!

Logistics:

• Left car to walk up the road to the trailhead: 10:20am
• TH: 10:45am
• Summit: 12pm
• Left summit: 12:30pm
• Back at TH: 1:30pm

This hike was awesome! Because the road is essentially a creek bed, do NOT attempt to take little cars up there. We were in a Subaru Outback which was fine but a bit challenging (a Honda Odyssey made it and I honestly have no idea how). The trail is overgrown in the beginning but still passable. The wild flowers were in full bloom and so beautiful! Red, yellow, orange, white, pink, purple... all the colors! The look-out was in good shape and has had some recent renovations (it was closed though). The views were spectacular and we were lucky enough to have a breeze so it was not a sweltering climb. Would recommend this to anyone in the area!

Let me get the negative out of the way up front.
About a half a mile from the trailhead is a series of pretty bad washouts on the road. I made it fine in an older Ford Escape but anything with less clearance might have problems.
Secondly, I think the difficulty of the grade for the first mile and last .03 is more difficult than reflected in the description.
That “I think you need to find a more athletic girlfriend” by the end of the hike kind of difficult if you know what I mean.

Now the good.
The fields of wildflowers are full of butterflies and the occasional hummingbirds.
The many beautiful mountain and valley views are awe inspiring.
When you hit the trail junction as you enter the forest be sure you go right.
If you start looking up and to the right, you will see the lookout tower on Thorp Mountain.
It looks far away but really it is closer than it seems so don’t be discouraged.
Be sure to bring a jacket, the top can be windy and cold.
Everyone will find the views in every direction to be worth the strain, except perhaps my girlfriend who now “hates hiking”.
But she’s a trooper and I think after some recovery and seeing the photos maybe she will hike again.
Fingers crossed! 😊

Went up with a group of five. The road was rough. Only a high clearance vehicle could have made it and ours bottomed out once. Keep an eye on your odometer and follow the “getting to the trailhead” as the last road isn’t on google maps and they’ll send you the wrong was trying to get to the coordinates.
It was very steep and quite narrow at times. Once off the Knox creek trail we ran into 1000 trail runners doing a race, which was annoying as we were forced to hop off the narrow trail every ten seconds. One downed tree and some overhanging brush but otherwise pretty clear.
Well worth the thigh-burner for the views at the top which were pretty incredible even on a partially cloudy day.

Parked at the trailhead saying Knox Creek 1315.1 and traversed up the switchbacks. Milage ended up being about 6.2 miles round trip. Once into kachees ridge trail take s right, the lookout is still quiet a trek. Sounds like there are 3 other trails that can lead up to the lookout but supposedly this is still the ‘shortest’ route. It was quite a workout and was hoping to get to the lookout much quicker than what the reports had been saying. Overall, a great hike and day!! Wildflowers in full bloom!