We drove out past Roslyn to hike up to Hex Mountain. 7.5 miles round trip with 2,600 ft of gain. We weren't sure how the snow would be in the warmer afternoon so we brought our snowshoes and ended up carrying them the entire time. Microspikes were very helpful until later in the day when the snow turned mushy. Beautiful day! The snow started right at the edge of the road. The trail follows closed forest roads for about 2 miles and 1,000 ft of gain.
We had views of Cle Elum Lake for most of the hike.
From the turn off of the "trail" to the summit is about 1.75 miles and 1,600 ft of gain. The route was well packed down and there seemed to be less snow than when we were here 2 months ago.
There were cornices along the east side of the ridge and evidence of previous avalanches below.
View towards Mt Daniels
Looking up at Hex Mountain
View below to where the Cle Elum River enters Cle Elum Lake
View through the burnt forest towards Mount Stuart
The last little bit up Hex Mountain is steep!View from the summit
Looking north
zoom of Mount Stuart
looking east
looking south
looking west
zoom of Mt Daniels and other peaks to the northwest
So lovely hiking into the views of Cle Elum lake on the way back down. Another view of the cornices and previous avalanche activity.
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