Tatoosh Ridge — Friday, Jul. 11, 2025

Perfect time to hike up to the Ridge if you want to see a wide variety and expansive amount of wildflowers and lots of butterflies too!

The mountainside of the ridge is covered with wildflowers. Magenta paintbrush, valerian, arnica, avalanche lilies, columbine, lupine, tiger lilies- just to name some of the ones you see on the way up and on the ridge.

There is one tree down near the start of the trail that you need extra time to go around. The trail otherwise is snow free and clear although a little narrow and slightly overgrown in a few spots. The trail is dry for this time of year.

You gain most of the elevation in the first 2 miles of the hike which fortunately is mostly in the shade. While tough the reward is that once you get to the ridge it is largely flat and you can meander along and take in the breathtaking views.

Definitely recommend that you continue on the ridge past the bend to where you are able to see Mount Adams on a clear day. You also have fantastic views of Rainer and St Helens from the ridge.

From the junction sign (Tatoosh lakes and lookout junction) we went up towards the lakes and hiked on the ridge above the lake/s and then descended into the basin but did not go all the way to the lakes due to snow. Would anticipate the snow would be melted out soon given the hotter weather expected over this next week. It is nice that you have options to extend your hike beyond the ridge.

It seems to be a quiet trail which is appealing and harder to find these days. The road is rough and has some potholes but is not terrible. A portion of the road (portion of Skate Creek Rd) was resurfaced recently.

The hike down was slippery in spots because it can be steeper and there is loose dirt. Poles definitely helped. No sketchy drop offs or anything like that. There was a breeze which helped with the bugs but because there were lots of wildflowers of course bugs were around.

Highly recommend this hike!