Yellow Hill, Jolly Mountain & West Fork Teanaway River — Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2020

We did a loop hike following Yellow Hill Trail to Jolly Mountain, and then down through the West Fork Teanaway River. The entire loop was 23.5 miles with around 7,200 ft elevation gain. We did not see or hear any other human for our entire hike, and did not see any other cars at either trailhead. We did see lots of deer, birds, and chipmunks, and the birds were really loud pretty much everywhere below the ridge. Originally, we wanted to take Sasse Ridge down, but decided against it based on time, trail, and weather conditions.

The Yellow Hill trail is multi-use and full of sharp rocks and dirt that slides around easily when you go up/down hill. The area experienced a recent burn so most of the forest we walked through were burned, with lots of wildflowers and low shrubs coming up. The first half (up to Yellow Hill and a little past) offered very few views, but once you get up on the ridge for the second half, the views opened up. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, and the Snoqualmie area and the Enchantments area were mostly obscured by clouds. I can imagine the views being amazing on a clear day, since we can make out the bottoms of the mountains beneath the clouds. It was also very windy on the ridges. We went on a cloudy day with intermittent rain and some weather coming from the west, but trees on the ridge were flagged or gnarled, so high wind is likely pretty common on the ridge. This part of the trail was snow free.

I'm guessing the Jolly Mountain Fire started right below Jolly Mountain, and you can kind of trace the origin of the fire by looking at the burnt markings on the trees. The summit of Jolly Mountain was in the clouds and extremely windy. Luckily there was a little wind shelter made from rocks at the tops. We hid there, had our lunch, and enjoyed our 360 degree view of whiteness. Coming down from Jolly Mountain, right before the junction with West Fork Teanaway River Trail, there was some deep snow on the trail and no human footprints (only deer prints) to follow. We had GPS so it was fine, but the area did not look like it was frequented very often and we might have had some trouble finding the trail again had we not had GPS.

Originally we wanted to go down Sasse Ridge, but due to the weather and possibility of snow on the ridge, we decided to head back via West Fork Teanaway River Trail. The trail descended quickly at first until it met the river. We saw a family of deer run across the trail, presumably after taking a drink from the river. Parts of the trail were very overgrown and muddy, but the tread was more solid than at Yellow Hill Trail. There were lots of either cow parsnip or giant hogweed growing on the trail that we had to bushwhack through. I'm still not sure what they were, but we tried our best to avoid touching them, and don't seem to have any burns from them yet. Note that the actual trail does not completely follow the same route as the one in Gaia GPS. Where it differs, it's marked with ribbons around trees. Most of the river crossings were doable without removing our shoes but some of the river crossings were impossible to do without taking off our shoes. There were some super delicious tiny wild strawberries at the lower elevations. Thimbleberries looked aaaalmost ready, but not quite.

We walked on the forest road for a couple miles back to the first trailhead, and the quiet forest road with flat tread was a welcomed change from the sharp rocks, dirt, and mud. We saw a couple deer along the road.