Toutle River

Coming up from the Blue Lake trailhead




Blue Lake


Curly Creek Falls

Looking down on the South Fork


Rockslide up the valley


South Fork


Rope climb to get up the north bank. It was pretty sketchy coming back down. Nice trail on the other side but my wife and the dog couldn't make it up.

Indian Heaven






Lake by the trailhead



Heading up to the plateau. A lot more open under the trees vrs down in the river valleys.





Lots of trees down including some quite large ones. I'm assuming this from the big wind storm we had last winter.



These rock piles are all over the place. I think they're from old mining activities.

Up onto the pacific crest trail. It's a superhighway compared to most of the local trails.



There are a lot of springs in the area. Some form ponds and others stay under ground and create marsh or grassy areas









Larger lakes further south





Headed back north on the abandoned rush creek trail. It was pretty decent most of the way and marked out with streamers so hopefully they are planning on maintaining it again at some point

Looks like some good adventures.

Great pics!  Thank you for posting them!

Great pics,, i've done

Colchuck
Section J PCT stevens to Snoqualmie
Summit st Helen's, if you want to call it a summit I guess, lol

Definitely need to get back in the woods

Well now OP I just walked away with ideas for hikes in cool areas…thanks!

Wta.org has alot of good hiking info

Like 161 said, WTA is great for research and recent trail conditions but is usually lacking on more technical trails and locations. If you have an account the washington hikers and climbers facebook group is very active and can share lots of info.

My 3yr old is good for about a mile of hiking before she ends up in the backpack for a packweight of ~50lbs. Its good training and she loves being in the woods so it gives me some extra motivation.

In the last few weeks I've done:
Mt. Pilchuck, approached via the east ridge/pinnacle lake and descended the normal route
3 Fingers Lookout via Meadow Mountain trail
Sauk Mtn. (really great payoff for such a short hike)
Blanca lake
Hurricane hill/hurricane ridge
Overnight at Twin lakes, wanted to summit Columbia Peak in the morning but got rained out, visibility was at most 30ft until almost back to Monte Cristo
Green giant buttress, wanted to recon the approach route to plan future rock climbs in the area

I am hoping my schedule, child care and the weather all cooperate to get in a through hike of the enchantments in early October.

June lake to Ape Canyon. 17.53/3216

June lake





Heading up to the Loowit trail

Leveling out on the southeast side of the mountain







One of the headwaters of the Muddy River. As near as we could tell this is the the start of the branch that ultimately flows down through Ape Canyon. Looks like there used to be a bridge here.



Notice the rebar in the upper part.

Plains of Abraham. This is the southern end. We had planned to hike further up but the conditions were poor and it was getting late in the day.

Headed back down and the trail joins back up with the Muddy River. We hiked back along the road to June Lake.









Pics from a previous trip. This is east and down hill where the Muddy River joins up with Smith Creek. From there it heads south to the Lewis and Swift. There's a trail that heads north by northwest along Smith creek that supposedly goes all the way to Windy Ridge but we've never gone the whole way.









Notice the difference in the color of the water where Smith Creek meets the Muddy River

Been camping at that Muddy River spot for years now




The Lava Canyon hike from there is incredible too.

Haven't been to lava canyon in a few years. We're hoping to run it before the snow sets in.

Lava Canyon

I was just at the Muddy River/Lava Canyon Spot over the weekend as well.

We would like to run the Smith Creek trail at night but crossing the Muddy River in the dark this time of the year seems daunting especially on the return trip when we'll be tired. At Lava Canyon we went around the right side and climbed out on several of the Rock formations over the trail. The suspension bridge is closed and had chain link across it so we called it a night. We might go back and run the left side if the snow doesn't come. My wife doesn't want to do the ladder in the dark though so we can't get down to Smith Creek that way.