Enjoyed the last field of blooming Heather & Lupin on the trek up to Vesper.

For a hot day, we started at 7am to avoid direct sun in the canyon, made it the top by 11 without really roasting( we took a longer water break at the crossing and soaked our T-shirts and hats for the trek up, which really made a difference ) and then took a 2 hours swim break before heading down the canyon again- very smart move because the sun is mostly off the trail in the canyon by 3 pm in August.

We were well prepared with electrolytes and snacks, but cannot stress enough to others the need to pack enough water for 8 to 10 hours or have a way to filter water. Sunscreen, electrolytes, poles… lots of unprepared friends out there today.

Overnight on Vesper Peak with a tag-on of Wolf Peak from 8.12-13 2025.

ROAD: Rough ruts towards the end of the road, but passable in an SUV. 

VESPER PEAK: Trail in rugged but in generally good shape (with lots of rocks, big steps etc, but no major obstacles), water crossings easily managed. Trail was a little easy to lose in the talus sometimes, but there were usually cairns to get you back on track. Pick your own path through the slabs towards the end! We did find cairns marking a fairly straightforward route on the way down. 

My advice? Start early to beat the heat or maybe don't slog up this one with an overnight pack on one of the hottest days of the summer. It's mostly exposed, and boy were we giant sweat puddles. 🥵

WOLF PEAK: After setting up our tents just below the summit, we dropped down NE from the summit towards the Vesper-Wolf saddle. We were able to find occasional cairns and bits of bootpath here and there. There was a nice snowmelt stream at the saddle. From there we just picked our way up towards the summit block of Wolf. A couple easy scramble moves (with exposure) and a little squeeze up through a crack in a rock got us to the top. 

It was a fun spot to watch the rock climbers head up Vesper!

Sadly, it was so exhaustingly hot that we gave up on our plan of also climbing Sperry as adding over another 1,500' of gain to the day sounded horrendous. The lake looked so tantalizing and refreshing below, but we didn't want to do any more elevation, so we turned around and headed back the way we came, staying higher on the saddle this time.

WATER: We filled up on water at the Elan Lake outlet on the way up Vesper as we weren't sure if water would be available on the summit, but were pleasantly surprised to find snowmelt much higher up. There were multiple snowmelt streams on our route, and we were able to fill up at a trickle coming off a snow patch just below the summit. There was also a bigger snowmelt stream if you dropped down the west shoulder of Vesper, so that should be a good option for anyone staying up there.

BUGS: Mosquitoes weren't too bad during the day but they did come out at dusk up at the summit! 

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Some of the best views we've had anywhere, but you'll have to work for it. We went up on Sunday 8/10 and the heat was a little much with near full exposure for the entire trail, so it was abnormally slow-going for us with extra breaks. Shortly after reaching the top of Headlee pass, we came across an injured hiker (ankle) who asked for SAR help, and thankfully we had our Garmin in-reach (no cell signal at all). By the time we were at the final approach we turned to see/hear a helicopter flying in to extract him. Pretty neat! Impressively fast response by SAR and very cool to receive a text that he was out safely. Overall, fantastic challenging, fun, and gorgeous hike. Bring extra water and a filtering device for the lake, odds are you'll need more than you think, especially on a hot day.

Wow, what a hike! I'd had Vesper on my list for a long time, and Cable<3 and I finally got to it on a sunny August Saturday.

The road to the trailhead is mostly fine for any car. There are a few large potholes within ~1/4 mile of the trailhead, but also pullouts where you can park if you'd prefer to avoid those while driving a low clearance car. Around 10:30am, we parked in one of these pullouts. This added ~1 mile to the hike, but the forest road is relatively flat, so the extra mile felt trivial.

The trail starts off in the forest, and you cross three streams before you emerge into a valley. All three of the streams are running low and can be crossed by hopping on rocks (including on the way back). Without rock hopping, the streams were probably ~1 foot deep at most. As you work your way into the valley, the trail also works its way upwards, and gets rockier.

Soon, you do some sidehilling across a rocky slope, until you reach a gully up to Headlee Pass, with tight switchbacks all the way to the top. We'd brought helmets with us not knowing what the scramble would be like, and decided to put these on around the start of the switchbacks up through Headlee Pass. We were happy about this decision - with people hiking above us, it would be easy for someone to accidentally dislodge a rock and send it flying down the gully.

Once we reached the pass, we got our first glimpse of Vesper. It looked like a shimmering sea of granite emerging from the skyline. Also - it looked far away! And steep! Nonetheless, we pressed on. The trail once again side hilled across a rocky slope, and then up to the outlet of Lake Elan. This area was really beautiful - rocks were strewn about in that typical sub-alpine way, and the stream felt like a protected oasis in an otherwise rugged environment. We took the opportunity to filter and fill up water here. Somehow, I'd already drank 2.5L of water even though we'd only traveled about 3 miles (unusual for me).

On the other side of the stream, a trail starts up through the trees, to the base of the granite slabs that define Vesper Peak. We found the trail easy to follow, and the views continue to open up as you ascend. Once at the granite slabs, it's a bit of a choose your own adventure situation. There are a variety of cairns (or "three stones" as we heard another hiker call them), but they seem to refer to more than one route up the slope.

We attempted to choose the path of least resistance, which was usually "center" or "more left." At times, we used our hands/feet to scramble up, or re-calibrated our route if needed. I grumbled here and there, but overall the route felt fine for someone comfortable with light routefinding and occasional use of hands/feet to ascend. Once we reached the summit, the views were spectacular. You can see Glacier Peak, Mount Pugh, Copper Lake, and many more peaks in what feels like all directions. It is a feast for the eyes!

We shared the summit with some other hikers, and even two impressive climbers who reached the summit from Ragged Edge! After some nice conversation and snacks, we started the journey back. The granite is so grippy, going down was faster and easier than going up (especially with an occasional butt scoot). The cairns were also easier to spot from above, and a smooth route revealed itself more readily than on the way up. 

The rest of the journey back to the car was not especially fast - most of this trail is rocky or rooty, without cruiser sections - but it was lovely to hike in the early evening light, watching the grasses and flowers sway in the breeze back in the valley. Nearing the trailhead register, we also discussed ideas for how to make trailhead and summit registers into ultra analog dating classified services and/or "missed connections" for the outdoors inclined.

Cable<3 and I agreed this was a five-star hike. Although it lacks solitude (we saw many parties throughout the day) the views are hard to beat. I'm already thinking of making it an annual destination!

gorgeous hike - on my top 5 (both for views/beauty and difficulty).

hiked with my 65+ dad who is a long endurance and experienced hiker, but not speedy (would normally finish an 8 mi moderate hike in 4-6 hrs). This hike took us 9.5 hrs due to the rough terrain (rocks/roots/boulder fields).

We felt well prepared otherwise for the trail - plenty of water (drank 3 out of 4 of our packed liters and had a filter and tablets just in case) and sunscreen + snacks and other essentials.

the downloaded All Trails map was useful for some of the wayfinding, as were rock cairns left by other hikers.

views were stunning - Rainier and Glacier Peak were OUT. Baker played peekaboo. Spada, Copper and Elan Lake were colorful and beautiful. swirling misty clouds rolled in as we reached the summit, but blew around enough to be more dramatic than obscuring.

wildflowers: lots of heather, asters & lupine. vine maple and (I think) sumac are starting to change color on one of the early slopes. lots of huckleberries and a few salmon berries, but they weren't very sweet.

road/parking: we arrived at 8 am on a sunny Friday and got a spot in the lot. the car before us was a larger truck so they parked on the road. please only park on 1 side of the road/where there's adequate space. when we left, 2 Subarus were across from each other and a larger vehicle than our ID4 would have swiped their side mirrors and possibly more.

Road has some larger potholes, but only one deeper rut that I went slowly over since ID4s don't have a lot of clearance.

crowds - we regularly saw other people, but it wasn't a conga line and we even had the summit to ourselves for 5-10 min (around 1 pm).

not many places to stop to pee if you need to, so use the TH privy (very smelly and nearing full) and watch for forested areas above the lake.