Mileage: 9.5 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 3900ft/5980ft
Map: Green Trails Lake Wenatchee No. 145
My favorite places to stop post hike with friends are: Grilla Bites, Route 2 Taproom and Grazing Place, Good Brewing Company, River House Cafe, Espresso Chalet, Gustav’s, Yodelin’s Broth Company, South, Dan’s Food Market, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike Details:
The hike to Dirty Face Peak and Lookout makes for a great early season hike when most forest roads are still covered with snow. The trail is a steep set of switchbacks to an abandoned lookout site now used for weather monitoring. Most stop at the stunning views where the lookout once stood but it is possible to continue along the ridge by dropping down and then scrambling back up to the Dirty Face Mountain summit (about the same elevation) and further on to Dirty Face Benchmark (6075ft) and Dirty Face Peak (6150ft). Glacier Peak stands to the northwest, the Entiat and Chelan Mountain ranges splay out to the east, and the Enchantments beckon in the south while Lake Wenatchee stretches down below.
My Hikes:
7/2/2021
Sarah and I met at the Monroe P&R and carpooled to the trailhead along Lake Wenatchee early enough that we were hiking up the trail just before 9am. I had meant to rehike this one in the spring when the balsamwood is popping yellow bursts along the trail but the reports of ticks had me delaying. The day promised to be warm but a breeze off Lake Wenatchee would hopefully keep us a bit cooler.
The first mile of trail was forested and gentle with a spring flowing over the trail at .9 miles. From here the trail comes upon Fall Creek gurgling down with paintbrush lining the sliver of water glistening in the sun. At 1.2 miles the trail crossed the creek and continues its northeastern direction. The terrain was more exposed here but patches of shade are created by tall brush as we gaze down at views of Lake Wenatchee through the blackened remnants of forest from the Dirty Face Fire of 2005.
At 2 miles, the trail takes a switchback onto a wide trail built on a remnant of forest road. It offered some relief from the gain but due to water running over the tread there were sections overgrown with thimbleberry and patches of mucky mud for the next .75 miles before leaving the easy trail and up again on tighter switchbacks. We had been leapfrogging with a small family and passed about 5-6 hikers headed down, otherwise the walk had been pretty quiet so far.
Thinking back to my first trip to Dirty Face Peak when there was still snow on the slope, the next 2 miles of never-ending switchbacks reminded me how snow would allow one to just kick step up. On a plus side, the mountain offered much more shade than I recalled, the verdant understory has grown in around the ghost tree spires pointing up towards the bright blue sky. The further we go up, the more rocky and exposed the trail becomes and at 4.2 miles a set of boulders mark where we stopped in my previous trip to put on spikes and snowshoes. I know we are close!
The further we climb, the more the meadow is decorated with wildflower color. Paintbrush, lupine, and phlox are newly bloomed as snow was last to melt here near the summit. At 4.75 miles the trail turned and made the final push to the summit where the cement foundation blocks of the lookout mark where we stopped for lunch at 5 miles and 5980ft. We talked about scrambling down and back up to one of the other 3 summits on Dirty Face but opted to just enjoy the views of Lake Wenatchee, Glacier Peak, the Enchantments and the Entiat and Chelan Mountain Ranges.
Our return trip was much faster and the only other person we saw was a mountain biker who was pushing his bike up the trail to the summit, sharing he had done the trail every year for 20 years. Wow.
4/24/2016
It seemed like a good day to head over the pass for some sunshine and we were rewarded with a beautiful day on Dirty Face Lookout and Peak.
We left the trailhead at about 9am with just a few people ahead of us on the trail. The bugs were in force in the parking lot, we headed up quickly and they calmed down. There was a nice breeze for a good part of our hike today.
The trail was mostly dry with some muddy spots where runoff is running down the trail. The windflowers are out and a lovely surprise.
The view opens up to Lake Wenatchee where it was obvious the water was choppy. Plenty of blowdown, several quite large but all negotiable but one large mess covering a switchback that had to be cut. Hated to do it. Most of the overgrowth is down with the wildflowers on the first part of the trail.
Snow starts to cover in patches at about 4400ft, soft and postholing. We all had spikes and poles and some had snowshoes. We put spikes on at about 5200ft as the trail was completely covered and we skipped the idea of switchbacks and just went straight up. We never put on our snowshoes.
The views at the top were amazing but the wind was cold and after hiking mostly in base layers we quickly put on everything we brought including gloves.
The trip down from Dirty Face Peak and Lookout included some glissading in the soft snow and returning to warmer temps. Layers came back off as well as spikes. We were back to the cars at 3pm.
Directions: Drive east on Hwy 2 to Coles Corner AKA Hwy 207. Turn north and follow it for 8.5 miles, the turnoff to the parking area is marked on the right up a very short forest road. If you pass the ranger station, you went too far. NW Forest Pass required, there is a privy and picnic table.
For more hikes off HWY 2, click HERE.
Thank you so much for stopping by Must Hike Must Eat!
If you need some healthy eating inspiration start here:..
Need some eating out suggestions when friends want to stop after a hike? I have a Pacific Northwest Eating Guide here.
Find out what’s been happening outside the blog:
If you have a question you don’t want to post in the comments, you can ask them here: