Klickitat Trail, Cispus Lookout — Saturday, Jul. 4, 2015

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

Klickitat Trail #7 and the side trail to the former fire lookout site at Cispus Point was the perfect hike for solitude and scenery on a holiday weekend. This non-motorized trail does not appear to get a lot of use and we had it's red-white-and-blue patriotic landscape to ourselves for Independence Day. To reach the trailhead, we drove US 12 east 12.7 miles from Randle (3.7 miles west of Packwood) to Forest Road 20. We drove 12.6 miles uphill on the gravel road, passing a signed eastern spur trail to the Klickitat Trail and Jackpot Lake to the unmarked western spur trail at the far side of a large recovering clearcut. There is parking space for 2-3 cars and a boot path leads off into the huckleberries and young trees. In about .2 mile, this path intersects Klickitat Trail #7. Turn right (west) and follow the trail as it ascends under cliffs for about .75 mile. The trail is lined with wildflowers such as Goat's Beard and Sitka Valerian which hang over the path, obscuring the tread. Once past the cliffs, the trail levels out in flower-filled alpine meadows and forest groves. Cispus Point becomes visible through breaks in the trees. At slightly more than one mile, the trail reaches a junction with Cispus Lookout Trail #127. We paused for lunch here in the shade of mountain hemlock trees overlooking a flower-filled subalpine meadow. Cispus Lookout Trail #127 traverses across the east side of Cispus Point before climbing steeply up the south face to the Cispus Point summit at 5,656 feet. Along the way, we saw the collapsed remains of a cabin built in 1915. The fire lookout was built in 1926 and destroyed in the 1960s, according to "Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics" by Ira Spring and Byron Fish. Rusting nails, some old anchor cables and phone line, and melted glass are all that remain after the Forest Service burned the structure. The flat top of Cispus Point overlooks the North Fork Cispus River valley and provides terrific views in all directions of Cascades peaks -- Rainier, Goat Rocks, Adams, Hood, St. Helens -- and the high ridges of the Dark Divide Roadless Area. It also overlooks some gigantic recovering clearcuts from the 1980s in the Timonium Creek valley, a reminder of the days when national forests were "tree farms." We hiked 3.2 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 1,000 feet.