castle Rock

Destination: Castle Rock, WA

Style: Hiking

Entered: 08/14/2004 by Ben Wiseley

Report: We set out in 90F+ heat to do a 14 mile hike up to Castle Rock and then down and around a lake and back out. A loop hike - pretty hard to find in WA. I'd never do this loop again. The hike up to Castle Rock (picture above) is a fairly easy 8 miles round trip. Lot's of open country to play in up there for an afternoon. The remaining 10 or so miles of this loop is pretty booring. I usually can't hike anymore because of blisters or chaffing but, on this hike, I hit the wall harder than I ever had before. The last 6 miles of this hike were absolute torture. I can only assume this was because of the heat since 14 miles isn't all that hard. Whatever - grueling day.

Getting there: Drive I-90 to exit 84. Go part way through Cle Elum and take a right onto 903 N - heading for Rosyln. Drive 903N to it's end and take a slight right and head up hill towards Tucquata Lake (sp?). This is forest road 4330. It's about 12 miles to the end. Park at the Caste Rock trail and do the hike Clockwise - although I'd think a simple hike up to Castle Rock would be far better than doing this whole loop.

The Hike: If doing the Loop you head up 2300 feet to Castle Rock. Take a right (head for Stevens Pass)... follow an amazing ridge walk for a mile or so.

Then dump Altitude until you come to a stream crossing (killer camp site here - picture didn't come out though, sorry). Dump more altitude until you come to a pretty serious stream crossing (was easy in Mid August but this would be really dangerous during run-off).

From this stream crossing it's a 600 foot climb to Deception Pass. Take a sharp right here and head out (5 miles to the end at this point, about).

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