Hidden Lake Lookout — Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

This is a road condition report for the gravel road towards the Hidden Lake Lookout trailhead. For the road condition of the Cascade River Road see my trip report from last weekend. 

The first half mile to about 1800 ft the road is in good condition and any vehicle with 6" of clearance can make it. Just before the switchback at 1800 ft to about 2100 feet the road is deeply rutted and requires a HIGH clearance vehicle or a very skilled driver in an SUV. That is, once several blowdowns get cleared. 

Between 2100 and 2500ft the road is in pretty good shape with only a few blow-downs.

Then there's Sibley creek. The road is washed out up to 12 ft deep and 40 ft wide. Fortunately the 8 or 9 ft culvert pipe is still in its original place. The upstream side is just completely blocked with multiple large logs. 

For adventurous folks it is possible to climb through the washout when the water level isn't too high. But until major repairs are done by the USFS a trip to the lookout this coming spring / summer is going to be significantly longer than it used to be. 

I turned around about 0.2 miles past Sibley creek, at the East Fork Sibley Creek. There is no damage to the road there at all... the culvert held up beautifully.