The Suiattle River Road (Forest Road #26) has washed out at approximately mile post 4.5 and is blocking vehicle access to these trailheads. I wanted to share photos of the washout, it will be a decent obstacle for anyone considering hiking into one of these trails. Condition of the road beyond this point is not known. 

USAGE DETAILS. Well stocked clean privy. 12 cars in the hiker lot when I arrived 8:30 am this warm Friday Aug 29. None in the stock vehicle lot. Leaving around 8 pm, maybe 18 hiker lot cars. On the Sulphur Mountain trail, I met just two guys, beginning a four day backpack looping through Bath Lakes.

GAIA stats. Min/max elevations 1656'/6198', net gain 4542', 9.3 miles, 11 hrs.

TRAIL. Steep. Gratitude to the workers who've cleared so much, but, there's still a lot of blowdown to work over/under/around.The trail is in forest with little view up to the last half mile or mile. But, the forest is open, the soft trail blends in, and for long stretches winds gracefully along hillside. So very quiet, apart from intervals of woodpecker. Plenty of spider webs across the trail higher up. Along with healthy open forest there are many tall burnt-dead tree trunks. 

TRAIL FINDING. Head out from the parking area on the big trail, Suiattle River on your right. Shortly, there is a sign on the left for Sulphur Mountain Trail #794, by a path. Follow it. Finding the trail at times took me extra attention, but with no snow I never lost it on the way up. The hanging pink ribbon trail markers sometimes helped. Coming back down, working around blowdowns twice I lost the trail. Recovered easily using GAIA's map-tracing of my hike up. (I disregarded my GAIA's trail sketch, which often didn't match the actual trail). 

WATER. No water sources up the trail (if you don't extend to the lake basin). On this warm day (60 degrees at TH, then rising), two liters was necessary and sufficient for me. 

VIEWS. Eventually you clear the forest, and get to marvelous views. First big one, look back over the Sulphur Creek watershed to Downey Mountain on its other side. Not long after, you get to a ridge with a couple hills, the further a little higher -- basically the end of the trail. On your left, the basin with Sulphur Mountain Lake. (Those two guys told me there's a DC plane wreck to be seen if you work your way down around the lake.) Ahead, past a minipeak, the ridge which contains Sulphur Mountain. To the right, Glacier Peak. Great views in every direction. Going into the lake basin, let alone onto Sulphur Mountain (not sure which way to go for that) would have taken more daylight than my fogey pace allowed, so I just enjoyed 90 minutes on the ridge and then returned. Great day.

It's around 7 miles and 4500ft up to get to the Ridgeline. Took me 3 hours exactly getting to the top and 2 hours coming down. Zero water on the route.

NOTE: GAIA's track of this trail is dead wrong almost all the way up. Don't rely on it.

Trail conditions: Rough for the first mile, then when you hit the forest proper it's easy to follow. The burn begins around 5000 ft, and surprisingly, it wasn't too hard to follow the trail to the top.

Intermittent snow begins at 5200ft or so, but can be avoided by staying in the burned area and going directly uphill (steep).

I was here to look for burn morels from the fire by the pass, but I was either too late (bloody hot recently), or the fire was too intense (looked really intense). No luck.

Massive blond black-bear in heat at around 4800ft


In short: a good training trail to get in shape, no water, no views until the top, but still a pleasant trail. The trail is in fine shape if you are willing to routefind a bit.

Trail volunteers have been working hard to clear this trail, and more hard work is needed to completely clear it. The first mile of the trail is marked by flags to help with navigation, and it is fairly easy to follow after that. There are several logs across the trail so be prepared to climb over or crawl under them. The low-quality trail made progress slow so expect to take more time than you usually expect for the distance.

The first mile and last half mile of the trail was mostly unshaded. The middle portion of the trail was all shaded. Temperatures were high, and I went through about four liters of water. Make sure to bring extra is you decide to tackle this trail.

Since a lot of the trail is in the trees, there weren't many opportunities for views along the way, but at the top the trees fell away and opened up into a small wildflower meadow. The view of Glacier Peak was a spectacular treat for a hard hike up.

Curious about Sulphur Mountain trail after the 2020 fire and wondering how my new boots and old legs would perform on a trail I knew would be a challenge,  I have to admit the trail is a better man than I am.  It's on a south facing slope so on a 90 degree day it took me 2 hours to gain only 1600 feet elevation and I turned around well below tree line.  The trail is easy to follow but despite volunteer work since the fire I counted four climb-over logs and three crawl-under logs in the first 1.5 miles. Do this hike if you seek solitude or if you want to burn calories and leg muscles and even then only if you've already done the other trails in the Suiattle valley. And carry plenty of water because I found none.