Mileage: 10 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 1600 ft/3182ft
Map: Green Trails Silverton No.110
Favorite Eats After Hike: LJs Bistro & Bar, Mirkwood Public House, Creekside Ale House, Glorybucha Microbrewery, River Time Brewing, 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.
Snowshoe Details:
A Kelcema Lake Snowshoe is a long gradual walk up on Deer Creek Road from the Mountain Loop Highway but you are bound to find some winter solitude in exchange. The length of your walk will depend on the snow level but parking will be in the main parking lot either way. You will share the road with a few sledders at the beginning and cross country skiers later on but few venture all the way to the lake.
My trip reports:
2/20/2016
I parked in the parking lot by the Mountain Loop and hiked in with my snowshoes at 8:15am. Deer Creek road is actually drivable for another mile so the party that usually happens down below was further up where the snow begins (I’m learning to be prepared for large pickups, camp chairs and beer wherever the snowline is on a snowshoe).
Fortunately I had started out early enough that there were just a few folks ahead of me and they all turned around because they were not prepared with snowshoes when the snow gets good after the third major creek crossing.
I was breaking trail the last 2 miles but it wasn’t bad as you could still see faint impressions from the lake’s last visitors.
I made it to the lake at 10:45, and the sun was beginning to peak out from the clouds. I meandered around the lake, sat and had lunch, climbed up on the rock outcropping for an hour or so with the lake to myself. You can hear the water cascading down from the cirque on the other side when you only have yourself and silence. And the plops of melting snow falling of the trees.
And there were about 25 other people heading up (some with snowshoes, some without), including some good friends of mine who started their trip a bit later. I was back to my car by 1:45pm.
1/18/2016
My mom and her friend wanted to find an easy snowshoe up the Mountain Loop so we headed up to check out the Deer Creek Road for a Kelcema Lake Snowshoe. The highway is snow free and the parking lot was snow and ice, but I’m sure it wouldn’t pose a problem to most vehicles. Get there early though, by the time we got back down, it was packed with tailgaters sitting around fires, families on sleds and folks were parked out on the road.
We headed up at 10:15 and saw only a handful of others folks on snow shoes and skis the whole time until we were about .5 miles back towards the car.
The beginning of the road really didn’t need snowshoes due to the high traffic of sledders until you reach the first break in the trees and views. It seemed that most folks turn around here. I started to posthole more after this point so I put on my snowshoes.
It is clear this road will need some major spring clean up as there was evidence of multiple slides, especially in the sections where water normally runs down over the road and there are concrete slabs.
Evidence of others greatly reduces after the first big slide and the snow gets much deeper. After that, expect to cross a few streams running over the road.
My mom stopped at the second major break in the snow over the road but I continued on as far as the hairpin turn at about 2800 ft. The views of Big Four and Bald were wonderful but I ran out of time to finish to the lake. The snow is crunchy on top and it became easier to posthole the further I went. I hope to get up there all the way to the lake next time. We were back down to the car at 2pm.
Directions: Drive east on the Mountain Loop HWY from Granite Falls 12 miles past the Verlot Ranger Station. Look for the Deer Creek sign on the lefthand sign (usually the Mountain Loop is gated here). Pull into the parking lot and head up FR 4052. There is a privy.
Click here for more snowshoes in the Pacific Northwest.
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