Evergreen Mountain Lookout — Saturday, Sep. 6, 2025

This was my second time hiking here and it was just as beautiful as I remembered it. We had the opportunity to stay in the lookout overnight after reserving it more than 6 months ago.

Getting to the trailhead:
Whether you come from Galena road or Beckler river road, you'll be driving for at least 45 minutes to an hour on unpaved forestry service roads. They are well-maintained with only a few minor potholes. There is one dip in the road up to the lookout after the 5-way intersection which could be difficult to cross in a vehicle with low clearance. When we arrived at the trailhead around 3:45pm there was only one other car at the trailhead, which can probably fit around 10 cars comfortably.

Hiking up:
This hike is very steep, especially at the beginning and end. Along parts of the trail there are also very steep drop-offs: I wouldn't recommend this hike for small children or dogs with poor recall. The trail is mostly packed dirt and was an easy walking surface. There was only one small blowdown over the trail and it should be easy for most folks to cross with no issue. There were many ripe blueberries along the trail to snack on while on the way up. We did pass what we thought might be bear scat but were unsure. Between the elevation gain and our overnight packs, the hike up took us about an hour.

At the lookout:
Despite the haze from wildfires there were still beautiful 360 views from the top. We only saw two other groups stop by while we were there. Here again there are steep drop-offs on both sides and there isn't a ton of space to spread out. Sunset was absolutely beautiful. Throughout the evening we had the opportunity to watch thunderstorms over the Eastern Cascades, with some bolts looking very red and ominous through the smoke. We also got to see some very cool cloud inversion. It got a little iffy overnight when the thunderstorms started heading our way. Though there were some occasional flashes of in-cloud lightning, the storms had mostly lost their strength by the time they reached us and we only had to deal with some howling wind and rain. Fortunately, the lighting-proofing of the lookout wasn't tested.

Hiking down:
In the morning the lookout was enveloped by clouds and the views were hidden. It was still a pleasant, but slightly wet, hike down walking through the mist. Despite the overnight rain, the trail was not slick. Trekking poles were still helpful to reduce the burden on our knees and knock down the many spider webs across the trail. We got back down to the trailhead in ~30 minutes.