On a windy Friday evening, I saw no-one else on the trail. I did not reach summit due to snow.

I hiked to about 4500 ft before turning around -- that's where it appears the handful of patches of snow turned to a long stretch as far as I could see. Not having any foot gear for snow, and keeping an eye on sunset time, that became my turn around point.

I started at 5:30pm, parking just off Salmon la Sac Rd. Hiking was 2 hours and 30 minute round trip time to my turn around point (not summit). There were only a few small patches of snow (taking seconds to cross) up to 4500 ft.

Up to about the Hex Mountain Trail entrance the FSR was nicely blocked from the area winds. From about the trailhead I'd guess winds were 15 with gusts up to 30 knots.

I used alltrails app showing the trail overlayed on satellite imagery to stay on the right path, briefly lost the trail twice, but would probably have lost the trail more without navigation. As other trip reports have mentioned, there's many forks.

Headed up Hex Mountain today, May 1st, for a father-daugther hike (along with our 1.5-year-old German shephard/husky mix). We parked on the side of the forest service road in front of the closed gate, and there were ~10 other cars there when we arrived at 9:30 am. Mostly wanted to provide an update on the snow, which is still consistent for the last mile or so before the summit.

As others have stated, there are many side roads that look deceptively like the main road, and we managed to take several of them before connecting to the AllTrails app to figure out where we had gone wrong. The "main road" on Google Maps is not consistently the road you want to take, so learn from our mistake and track your progress on AllTrails or Gaia from the beginning! 

After an extra 1-1.5 hours wandering around scenic but incorrect FS roads, we found our way back to the correct route. The Hex Mountain Trail sign is easy to spot when you reach that point, and the hike up the ridgeline is where this one gets steep. We had intermittent cloud cover, but this would be hot in the summer! A cold wind picked up as we got higher, and roughly a mile from the summit, sloppy snowfields became consistent. We used microspikes and were sliding around--I definitely wouldn't have wanted to do this with no traction. There were visible snow bridges and places where other hikers had punched through several feet, so we focused on sticking to the solid, well-trodden paths.

Views from the top were GORGEOUS despite shifting clouds! Exceeded my expectations, and I will definitely be back! 

We left Seattle at around 6:30am on a Sunday and arrived at the trailhead just before 8:30 after making a stop in North Bend. There were only 4 cars in the "parking area" when we arrived, and it is just a dirt path so please be conscious of how you park so that folks can still get in and out with their cars. 

We started up the trail at 8:30am, I had my hiking poles and my friend did not. The trail was covered in snow intermittently up to the Hex Mountain trail sign. From there on there is much more snow on the trail, and the last mile is completely covered in snow. My friend and I did not use our microspikes on the way up, and did completely fine with lots of rest as we climbed up. There were maybe 4 other groups of people on the way up at the same time as us. We reached the top at around 11:30am, and stayed up there taking in the GORGEOUS views for about 30 min. It was incredibly windy up there but it was essentially clear skies, except for around Mt. Rainier which was a little obscured by clouds. Still incredibly beautiful. It isn't that big of an area at the top either so having a ton of people there would not be pleasant. When we got up there though there were maybe 3 other pairs of people resting, with several more pairs of people coming up as folks were descending.

We left the peak at 12pm, and decided to put on our microspikes as we were descending. The snow had started to turn into slush at that point but it was fun to kind of slide down the steep areas. There were a lot more people coming up the trail as we were going back down. We got back to our car at about 1:50pm. 

Again, please be conscious of how you park, because we did have to squeeze through a pretty narrow space between 2 cars parked on both sides of the dirt road to get out. I would probably only do this hike again when there is still snow on the trail, I'd imagine that doing it in the peak of summer and in the heat would not be very pleasant with how steep it is and no switchbacks. It was a great challenging hike to open the season with!

As other trip reports have mentioned, the snow is melting out fast! You can leave the snowshoes at home though microspikes may still be handy. The trail alternates between snow and dirt up until the last mile, where it is continuously snow until the top. The boot path, what’s left of it anyway, is pretty consolidated.

I hiked it Sunday late in the day and only encountered one other party. Not terribly surprising though as this hike is much lovelier when it’s fully snow covered imho. 

What a spectacular, sunny day to be on Hex Mountain. The snow is melting fast on the eastern side of the Cascades, but there was still plenty of it as you climbed to elevation. We left the trailhead at 9 am and there were only 2 other cars in the very small parking lot. (A huge benefit to week day hiking...)  The trail starts about a hundred yards north of the turnout, on the opposite side of the street.

Patchy snow starts almost immediately, but we made it to the top without microspikes (and opted to leave our snowshoes in the car, which was a good call. So many trips I carry them and never use them!) There are a couple of junctions and forest road options that could lead you astray, so be sure to pay close attention to WTA details, or bring a detailed map/gps.

Other reviewers have noted that the real elevation gain starts at the Hex Mountain sign turn-off. They are correct! This trail has no switchbacks and climbs steadily until the summit. Poles were definitely helpful.

The wind can definitely blow hard in places...and the summit in particular, but it wasn't too bad for us. We opted to do a loop instead of re-tracing our steps, and my advice for anyone else trying a loop is to have GPS. There are plenty of obvious roads and tracks, but they aren't necessarily the ones that lead you back to the trailhead.  It took some dead reckoning and following a few animal paths even with gps. We managed to startle a cow elk and a rabbit with its nice white winter coat. The loop is nice but stick to the in/out if you're not wanting to do any route-finding.

Microspikes were very useful on the trip down as the snow had softened and conditions were slippery on the steep sloped trail.

Lastly, the 360 degree views at the top on a clear day make up for any complaints you might have about this hike. We bumped into 2 gentleman on the way up that said this would probably "be a one and done" destination for them. Once they reached the summit, they said they needed to re-think that statement. We totally agree !