Such a short, great hike! There were only four other cars at the bottom of the trail, and by "bottom" I mean about 1.4 miles from the trail-head as the road was washed out by large rocks that we didn't feel comfortable driving over in our Subaru. We went on a weekday and only saw a handful of people on the way up and about six folks up at the top. I'd say 80% were wearing masks.

We took it slow but made it to the top in about 80 minutes, in total the hike was 6.15 miles with the road washout. Beautiful views at the top, it would be a great trip with visitors (short and sweet)!

Arrived at the trailhead at 5pm. There were four other cars parked along the forest road. As others mentioned, the road is only accessible by high clearance vehicles. The hike up is fast. Not very challenging, but still uphill. I was expecting an actual scramble at the top so was surprised when we reached the summit. I wouldn’t call it a scramble. We stayed at the top for quite a while so didn’t get back down to the car until around 7pm. Overall, a solid after-work hike - good views for not much effort. Only passed a few people. 

Well I won't return to Mount Catherine anytime soon. The view of Rainier is fabulous, but that road! I don’t want to submit my SUV to that again, the risk of a shredded engine block not worth it. Most of the road has just deep potholes that if you are careful are not problem, but at 1.5 miles to the trailhead at a sharp left the road is more or less washed out from water, and goes from being really bad to only accessible via specialty cars like jeeps/trucks. Between the 1.7 and 1.5 mark there were 30-50 cars parked. 

On the trail back down, talked to a few people who mentioned that they had parked at 1.5 miles, for a total of 6 miles round trip. What was disconcerting was to then drive past groups of people walking up the hot, dry, dusty logging road. The ridge line is tiny, fit for about 15 at most, and there must have been 50 people heading up there.

The hike itself is nice, short and sharp. At the top on the ridge line, nothing obstructs the fabulous view south of a white and crystal clear Mount Rainier. Behind and below is the distant roar of I 90. Below is to the east along I 90 is a reservoir. The John Wayne iron horse trail parallels this area. Between the hot sun and the light cool breeze, no bugs! Probably due to no water source but rain, although I did spray liberally with OFF, as well. Most hikers were very responsible and put on their masks before passing, with only 1 dog bag left on the trail.

We hiked here at 6pm on a Sunday with only one other group. Most of the 5 mile gravel road is in pretty good shape for a FSR, until about 1.5 miles before the trailhead where there's really sharp rocks and deeper than normal pot hole divets. We opted to park there because I wasn't confident in my cars tires, but we saw 3 higher clearance cars navigate it fine.

The 1.5ish miles to the trailhead was actually a pretty nice warm up, slower grade and some views of the pass along the way. We were able to run down it on the way back, too, so it only added about 40 minutes to our trip. The actual hike was pretty steep in some parts, but overall easier than I was imagining. And the pay off is well worth it, 360 views and mount rainier peaking out. The rope section to the summit is not bad (pretty short), and that's coming from two people are pretty scared of heights. I would definitely do this one again.

Great day hike with the family and dog. Pretty solid workout for what is a shorter hike but the payoff views are definitely worth it. A few people on the trail today but didn’t feel crowded. Road to trail head is a bit dodgy but SUV with decent clearance was able to navigate the potholes without problem. Will be back to this one for sure!