I intended on going to West Fork Foss yesterday but the landslide wasn't passable with my dog so I went here instead. I just went for a quick trail jog - maybe 3-4 mi RT - and it was a beautiful one. I was the only one on the trail which was wonderful. Everything is super bright green and it smells amazing. There are some flowers blooming but not many. Streams and rivers cross the trail often enough that you don't need to bring water for your dog.

Hiking on a weekday is fantastic since I only saw one person all day. This trail has lots of trees blown down across it so a lot of climbing under, over and around down trees is required to hike this trail but still its well worth it. The East Fork of the Foss River is raging and made for a fantastic hike today. Lots of overgrowth as well but trail is still easy to find. I did not make it to the lakes of Jade, Emerald and Opal which is the end of the designated trail but it was not my plan since recent reports still show them frozen over. Check out the videos of this hike or over 350 other hikes I have done in Washington State on my youtube channel "lmm3181" or click on the direct links below for this hike. I hiked in about 5 miles and turned around and came back out. All and all a great day for a hike! As always get out and see this beautiful state and enjoy your hiking! Take Care, Mike

Decided to take a bit of a risk and headed out with the missus to see if we could make it up into Necklace Valley for an early season overnight. As advertised, the trillium, bleeding hearts and skunk cabbage were in full effect, and the trail along the valley following the east fork of the Foss was alive with the new growth and sounds of spring. It was an absolutely gorgeous hike along this part of the trail with water everywhere from the melting snow and only a few downed trees that were not too difficult to navigate. We were also happy to see that the previous report was correct and that the bridge that crosses the Foss at 5.2 miles was not out and we had no problem crossing over the river. The trail is a little difficult to follow on the other side of the river as it crosses another somewhat subtle log bridge before heading up towards the rocky talus, we eventually spotted the cairns and began our ascent. The snow began in earnest around 3200ft and we put on our microspikes and gaiters here. After this point the trail gradually became more and more difficult to follow due to both snow cover and downed vegetation. Although we had high res topo maps we were very fortunate in that there were a set of footprints (and dogprints) that seemed to know the way very well, and these turned out to belong to a small intrepid party who we met on their way back down and who also had GPS, they encouraged us to continue with our plans to camp at Jade lake. Thank you friendly people! Even still we lost the trail a few times and so our going was a little slow, and we added several more cairns at these points to help future adventurers. Beginning around 3800 feet the trail becomes exclusively snow and I wouldn't recommend attempting it at this time without spikes and poles, but snowshoes were not necessary. Jade lake at 4600ft was still half frozen over, and beyond the Alpine lakes still appeared to be very much in the grips of winter. Nevertheless there was a small area of snow free earth here, just at the advanced front of spring, for us to pitch a tent. Night time temperature low was 28F. We headed down the next morning, peeling off layers as we went and were warm enough by the time we reached the Foss bridge to take a quick dip. Brrr. We were extremely pleased with the adventure and I would definitely like to explore further into necklace valley later in the season!

We got a late start and didn't get to the trail head until 2pm on Saturday. We had originally planned on camping at the Tank lakes but our new plan was to get as far as we could before it got dark. We booked it down the East Fork of the Foss trail over dozens of blowdowns and then headed up to Jade lake. There were quite a few people camping by the Foss river but there were still some open campsites. We passed those up and continued on. Consistent snow started about 1000ft below Jade lake. We didn’t use any traction but the snow was very rotten in places and we had to watch our step. We got to Jade lake around 7pm then went as fast as we could over to Emerald lake over a snow bridge that looked like it might not last much longer to set up camp there. There is only 1 nice campsite at Jade (that was actually dry!) but it was taken. We still got an awesome spot all to ourselves at Emerald lake. We didn’t see anyone else go beyond Jade lake our entire trip. The next morning the snow was hard so we used microspikes on our way up to the Tank Lakes and eventually switched to snowshoes as it warmed up. We had a GPS to stay on track and the rolling snow fields made for much easier travel then the bushwhack and boulder fields in the summer. We crossed a few sketchy snow bridges but didn’t have any problem getting to the Tank lakes.

A lovely dry spring day gently ascending up the East Fork Foss River valley. The trillium are in full bloom in multiple colors, and we also saw many bleeding heart, violets, and a pair of calypso orchids. The skunk cabbage were just starting to come up. The trail is gentle rolling and in good shape--the dozen or so spots with downed trees do not represent too big an obstacle. The trail passes through a large wetland area at about 2.5 miles with views opening up across the valley to waterfalls, punctuated by bullfrog calls. All creek crossings were easy. We saw about 7 parties of dayhikers during the day. The log bridge crossing the river at 5.2 miles, just before the trail climbs steeply up into the Necklace Valley, is intact but damaged (see photo). Over half of the one-sided hand railing is missing, the bridge is snapped off on the far end, and there is a large pool of water between the trail and the beginning of the bridge. The bridge is about 1/8 of a mile past the tent sites (with campfire circles and toilet) in a section of the trail that has been partially wiped out by the river--but easily skirted around. We also drove up a mile and a half or so past the East Fork trailhead to see the slide on the road (6835) to the West Fork Foss River trailhead. It's an impressive showing of natural forces--the road is covered with hundreds of trees as an entire mountain side slid down onto the road. A few intrepid souls had parked nearby and presumably made their way through the thicket to the trailhead.