We hiked the Abercrombie Mountain Trail on a warm, sunny Sunday in early October. Autumn colors were in full display along the access roads and on the trail and the clear, smoke-free air gave us great views from the upper parts of the trail and especially from the top of the mountain (see photos).
GETTING THERE
Driving to the trailhead presented no problems. The directions in the trail description are very good. The last leg of the drive, up FR 300, is the only difficult section. Four-wheel drive is not needed, but I recommend good tires, at least moderate clearance and a bit of power to get up the grade and over the humps.
ON THE TRAIL
The first two miles of the hike are through dense, second-growth forest with no long views and little light. Fortunately, the trail is in great shape and the grade is easy, so you can make good time through this part.
After about two miles, breaks in the forest afford brief views to the west and a few larches light up the dark greens of the firs and pines. The trail finally breaks out onto the open ridge for good after about three miles, and from here to the summit the views were lovely. Although larches are not abundant along the trail, we could see swathes of them on the northeast facing slopes to the south and east. The trail gets progressively rockier and steeper the higher you go, culminating in a rock-rubble chute up the final grind to the summit (see photo). This part of the trail faces south and is completely exposed, so it was hot even on the October day. Several streams cross the trail in this lower section, but the upper part of the trail is dry and exposed. Our dog needed several water breaks before we got to the top.
We spent more than an hour enjoying the views from the rocky summit. The air was so clear that we could see all the way to the snow-capped peaks of the Canadian Rockies in the north. The larches covering the north side of the mountain were a wash of yellow in the foreground (see photo). What a perfect day to be up there.
We were lucky to be alone most of the time that we were at the top. However, the broad summit provides lots of room for groups to space out and enjoy the views. Even on a more crowded day the summit would have been enjoyable.
Although it was a sunny Sunday, the trail was not crowded when we were there. Only three other vehicles used our trailhead while we were there (total of 5 adults and 2 children), and we met another group of four hikers at the top who must have come up via one of the other trails.
Overall, I thought it was an excellent hike for scoping out this corner of Washington State. The last mile of the hike is really lovely, the relatively gentle grade lower down allows for speedy progress through the deep forested section, and the views from the top are wonderful in all directions. This is our first time in this corner of the state, and we were very glad that we chose this as our inaugural hike.
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