CGI can’t create THIS. Poets are inspired by THIS. Painter’s canvases are made for THIS. Singers muse about THIS. My legs gravitate to THIS. THIS…is Snowgrass Flat in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. When it comes to hiking the Cascades, sadly, I’m a creature of habit. I have favorite hikes which I rinse and repeat annually. This is a bad thing when you have miles and miles of lands full of the most beautiful color, scenery, experiences to be had. Snowgrass Flat is now added to my repetoire of go-to places for Cascadian hikes. With a trailhead located south of Packwood, one must venture for about 45min along a dusty gravel road(it’s about a 15−17mile trek; while in your car, you will feel like a sock in a washing machine due to the washboarded road). And I’m not kidding about the dust, it’s a dustgasm. But it’s all worth it. The trailhead was fairly filled with many a hiker’s vehicle(but on the trail, we didn’t see too many). The trail starts with a quickstep along the side of a pine-filled mountain — every once in a while you’ll be afforded views of Mt. Adams to your right. There is water on this trail, and you may cover a bog or two, streams, and at mile 1 – 2 a torrent which is handled by a nicely-built bridge. Due to the water, there are some boggy-ness, and with this there can be some mosquitoes, but we didn’t come across much on our way up(perhaps the bug spray helped… or maybe I just wasn’t tasty enough). If you want a workout, you will have one. It doesn’t slap you upside the head, but it’s a nice, slow, long burn — so it’s nice. After about 2−3hrs(around Mile 5 – 6 for us), the horizon starts to open up and you feel like you are reaching the top. This is the Flat That Is Snowgrass. You are in meadows galore. For some reason the sky is bluer, the waters are clearer, the craggy snow-covered peaks are breath-takers…it’s everything a hike should be. There are many options for camping. Here you can see St. Helens in hazy distance, and Mt. Adams is there to taunt. Other sights are Goat Lake to the north — it’s captured in what appears to be an eternal winter. The biggest feature would have to be Old Snowy and his mountain homies. If you have the time, my friends told me that Goat Lake and Old Snowy are excellent additional trips one can take from Snowgrass Flat. **mental note made** I can’t wait to come here again. This is why I love Washington state. This is why I hike. THIS is brought to you by the Unilocal-1200.
