After reading the trip report by cascadesdj I decided to go to Thorp Mountain via Knox Creek Trail. The trip report mentioned the rough road to the trailhead but the reporter was able to get there in his Subaru Forester and I also drive Subaru Forester. The forecast for Sunday was sunny. I thought "Why not?"

I asked my friend to join and she and her husband joined my wife and me.  Four of us departed our meeting place in the Eastside in my Subaru Forester at 8 am. The 1.5 mile road (FS4308-120) to the trailhead was really rough but we arrived safely at the trailhead just after 10 am. Another party in a Subaru Forester arrived shortly after us. 

The first part of the trail is in a meadow full of wildflowers. We reached Kachess Ridge trail in 1.3 miles with 1000 feet of elevation gain. Here we turned north on Kachess Ridge Trail. Two young men who passed us went south on Kachess Ridge Trail by mistake and had to turn around to get to Thorp Mountain.

Kachess Ridge Trail is in a forest and cool. At 2 miles from the trailhead we reached a junction. The left fork is Thorp Mountain Trail and the right goes to Thorp Lake, Thorp Creek Trailhead or No Name Ridge. The Thorp Mountain Trail is steep and there were a few snow patches we had to walk around. The snow should melt in a week or so. 

We arrived at the lookout cabin just after 12 pm. The cabin was locked. We had lunch on the deck on the north side of the cabin where it was in the shade. A swarm of mosquitoes bothered us while we were having lunch. After we finished our lunch two young men (Sam and Lucas) arrived and explained what happened. We enjoyed the views from the summit and took a lot of pictures. 

At 1 pm we left the summit and went down the way we came.  We passed three people on the way down. We got back to the trailhead at 2:30 pm. There were four cars at the trailhead including ours. All cars were high clearance all wheel drive vehicles. 

This hike was the first time for four of us and we were very satisfied with the views of mountains and wildflowers.

My GPS track is attached below.

Thorp Mt offers a spectacular flower show on the first half and huge views at the lookout. But the Knox Ck Road is very rough and, about a half mile before the TH is washed out pretty badly. I was able to drive through it in a Subaru Forester, but would walk that last part of in a sedan or car without 4WD. The flowers start immediately with acres of beautiful blue ones and after the first half mile change over to brilliant orange paintbrush mixed with lupine, old trillium, phlox, serviceberry, and others. There are patches of snow on the second half, but none that require special equipment. Views from the top include the whole Cascade Crest (and pretty close), Rainer, and parts of the Stuarts to the east. You also hike through steep meadows with views far down to Lk Kachess. Right now is a good time for the hillsides of flowers and for gazing at peaks covered with snow. I much prefer the Knox Ck approach to the Thorp Ck. It starts higher, avoids buggy woods and the little lake, and includes the aforementioned meadows and wider views. We saw no other hikers in the 3-4 hours we were up there. We even saw no other cars on the gravel roads. 

Unless you have a high clearance vehicle like a truck or Jeep, the road is impassable about half a mile from the parking area.(photo included)

We carefully pulled off on a very narrow area  off the road and walked the extra half mile.

The trail is in good condition with the exception of some intermittent snow at the split (about a mile up).

There were a few types of wildflowers that were starting to bloom.

The trail is beautiful. It was a clear day and we had a stunning 360 view, including Mt. Rainier.

The trail is steep but this is a great shorter trail to do in the Snoqualmie area.

We attempted to reach the Knox Creek trailhead for Thorp Mountain this morning. We made it about 7.1 miles in from the main road, so we should have been at or very near the trailhead. However, we had not reached the end of the road, a parking area, or anything that looked like a trail before we were abruptly cut short by downed trees across the road and quite a bit (15 inches or so?) of fresh snow.

We walked up the road past the first blow down a ways, and encountered another one blocking the road and the snow was getting deeper. At this point, we decided that tackling Thorp Mountain was going to be more than we had bargained for today and went back down the hill to hike a lower elevation trail (Cooper River from Salmon la Sac) instead.

The dog had a blast playing in the snow, though!

This trip report is in two parts.

Part one: We drove up to the Thorp Mountain trail head. The road is great until the last two miles, then has a couple bad spots, that most vehicles should be able to get over, if you drive nice and slow. We were greeted by mixed rain and snow. It was coming down pretty good, but decided to go for it anyway. For about 100 feet. We really weren't prepared for snow, and since I have put my wife in many situations she still hasn't forgiven me for, decided to turn around and get lower in elevation.

Part two: Hiked up the Cooper River trail from Salmon La Sac. The fall colors were awesome, but BEWARE! If you spend too much time looking at all the bright red and yellow maple, you WILL be stepping in horse doo doo. We passed three or four groups of people with horses during our hike. Yes, this is a horsey trail.

It poured rain on us the whole time, but despite being wet, we had a great time. We probably looked as if we were playing hopscotch the whole time, dodging the presents left by our equine friends.