East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Friday, Jul. 1, 2011

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

The East Foss trail is one of the easiest, most pleasant forest hikes in the Cascades - at least for the first 4.5 miles. It follows an old railroad grade for the first mile, then gently ambles along the East Foss creek to a log crossing at 4.5 miles. Then it ascends up into the beautiful Necklace Valley which is dappled with several pristine Alpine lakes. The trailhead is adjacent to the Foss River road. It immediately plunges into an easy forest walk until it comes to Burn Creek. There it climbs up to a tilted bridge and then back down to the grade. Further on it clambers over some rocks and roots to gain another 100 or so feet but then continues its modest gain up the valley. We only went in about 2.5 miles to the marsh lake but others were going on to a campsite further up.