We just finished Devils Dome Loop. What a great hike!
Some things you might find useful include:
1. The trail on most apps is off by quite a bit (we tried Gaia, PeakBagger, AllTrails, etc). We just now updated the Cairn map to show the correct route (you're welcome!)
2. Bugs! There were a lot of them. Not the worst but pretty bad. Places with lots of wind had fewer bugs (obviously). Devils Dome wasn't bad. Devils Park was the worst. We appreciated our face nets and permethrin clothing.
3. There were a lot of berry bushes on the trail but we only found a few ripe berries (red huckleberries, neat!) We saw a lot of wild strawberries with flowers but no berries yet. If you go in a week or two, look for them.
4. There is no water between Devils Dome and Devils Pass. Plan accordingly.
5. We caught the Ross Lake Water Taxi. Call ahead to make reservations. We had a reservation for 11:30. We parked at the Ross Lake Dam Trailhead (mile marker 134) at 11, packed our bags, and hiked down to the pink phone (on a telephone pole at (48.7348,-121.06258). We called at 11:30 (our scheduled pick up time) and walked down the road to the dock where we caught the boat a while later. The boat dropped us off at Devils Junction at 12:30.
6. The bridge to Canyon Creek trailhead was taken out by a tree but the tree fell onto the bridge making it possible to cross on the tree. Poles or a good walking stick make it easier to cross. See the tree in our photos and decide for yourself.
7. As expected and reported by Cairn, there is no cell coverage anywhere on this hike.
8. We hung our food. We found good trees at Devils Park and near the cirque below Crater Mountain. We didn't see any good trees for hanging food on Devils Dome. There were bear boxes at the Devils Junction camp if you stay down there.
9. We saw 8-10 people per day on the trail.
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