We went up to Hex Mountain hoping to get there before the weekend crowds arrived, and we did! If you start early enough, you should be able to find plenty of parking and be one of the first ones on the trail.

Walking along the road you'll notice people were nice enough to leave little arrows out of sticks pointing in the right direction for the trailhead. Make sure to follow these as some people that came up after us had gotten off track and took a 2 mile detour the wrong direction.

Once on the trail, it is pretty straight forward. There are wildflowers along the way, and the top is snow-free. There are a couple piles of snow before you exit the woods but those aren't a problem at all.

On a clear day you'll have amazing views from the top!

Here is a video of our trip https://youtu.be/yQpGFKcJebA and our full trip report at https://summitforwellness.com/day-hike-to-hex-mountain/

We did this pretty early because we saw the trip reports about it being exposed. Got to the trailhead at 8:30 and were the only car, there were 3 other cars when we left at 1:00. There's room for about 8-10 cars at the TH.

There were arrows pointing the way along the roads when we went up, but when we went down it was clear someone had purposefully messed up every single one. We tried to re set up all of them. I wouldn't rely on them if someone is purposefully ruining them, maybe use Gaia or All Trails or something else to guide you. Gaia did have this trail accurately mapped, and had both the TH at Salmon La Sac Rd and the TH at the end of the Forest Roads/start of trail 1343 listed.

The hike isn't quite as exposed as I expected, it's maybe 30-40% covered and the shade is intermittent all the way until the summit. It is dry, dusty and hot still though.

When you get to the top Gaia shows there being a trail directly up the ridge to the summit but there isn't one. You overshoot the summit a little bit and then backtrack up. It only adds 800ft so there is no need to bushwack, just go a little farther until you see the exposed bare ridge leasing East and there's an obvious trail back left/NW to the summit of Hex.

Trail was slick and dusty coming down, I fell when I was trying to multi task and wasn't using my poles. I would recommend them for the way down.

The trailhead comes up quick, I plugged the WTA coordinates into Google Maps which worked fine. Keep an eye out for the Kittitas County fire station on your right, the turn is just past there (not the stations in Roslyn or Ronald). Keep your head on a swivel looking for the trail along the forest roads for the first few miles, it's not hard to miss a turn. Once on the actual trail and following the ridge up, routefinding becomes easier but the going gets a lot tougher. By midday, most of the route is in direct exposure to the sun (the wide roads offer little shade and much of the ridge is the site of an old burn that leaves only the occasional narrow tree to offer relief). Bring extra water for everyone (especially dogs) on hot days and get an early start. Though steep, dusty, and with a few spots of loose soil and rock, the trail is in good condition and the summit offers beautiful views of Rainier, Lake Cle Elum and the Salmon La Sac area, the Central Cascades, the Enchantments, the Teanaway, and a line of sight all the way to the Columbia River.

Did  a day hike to Hex Mountain for the first time. Wildflowers were blooming and had some breathtaking views! It was about 8 miles round trip. Be sure to follow the arrows made out of sticks that people left on the trail to point you in the right direction.

Great spring hike, lots of green growing in a large burn area. I probably wouldn’t want to do this on a day any warmer than today because it is very exposed and steep. Some idiots were setting off what sounded like huge fireworks and shooting guns across the canyon which kind of took away from the peaceful mood so I called the rangers cause it was also obviously dangerous on top of being annoying. Look out for the arrows made of sticks (pictured) thoughtfully laid out to direct you up the road to the trailhead. We got turned around in the beginning but then were instructed to keep an eye out for them and had no trouble finding our way from then on. Stunning panoramic views at the top of Stewart, Rainier, and plenty more. A great work out with a great payoff!