Thorp Mountain and Thorp Lake via Knox Creek

We drove out to French Cabin Creek Road north of Cle Elum Lake, to hike up to Thorp Mountain and then to Thorp Lake and back via the Knox Creek Trail. We only drove a short distance up FR 120 because it was icy and we read a car had slipped in the ice yesterday. Walking up the road added 1.75 miles each way. Overall, we hiked 10 miles with 3,100 ft of gain.

frosty leaf on the ground

Official trailhead to Thorp Mountain via Knox Creek, from here it is 2.3 miles to Thorp Mountain.

The first section of the trail is mainly in the open, gaining 1,100 ft in 1.3 miles. View on the ridge to the south.

We could see a little bit of clear sky and sunshine to the southeast under the high clouds.

Higher up along the ridge was fairly consistent snow on the trail.

Up on the ridge, the trail was mostly in the woods and fairly flat for the next 0.6 miles. Here we could see Mount Stuart and the Stuart Range to the northeast.

zoom of Mount Stuart and the Stuart Range

A little further down the trail, we could see a distant cloud covered Mt Rainier to the South.

zoom of Mt Rainier

The trail then meets up with the Thorp Creek trail, and gains 456 ft in 0.4 mile. Fire Lookout on Thorp Mountain

The views from Thorp Mountain are outstanding. pano to the north

zoom of some of the peaks in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

zoom of Mt Daniels

pano to the south: Kachess Lake below, Mt Rainier now hidden by the clouds.

Heading back to the fire lookout, it was very windy and cold, so after enjoying the views and taking photos we decided to head down to Thorp Lake for our lunch break.

one of the benchmarks on Thorp Mtn

below to the southeast is our next destination: Thorp Lake

After returning to the trail junction, we hiked 0.8 mile down the Thorp Creek Trail to Thorp Lake. Parts of this trail was very icy. 

A short 1/4 mile trail leads to  Thorp Lake

We had a nice lunch break out of the wind enjoying the view of Thorp Lake and Thorp Mountain.

Then we hiked a mile back up to Thorp Mountain to reach the Knox Creek Trail and hike back to where we started.

track of our hike today