West Fork Methow River Tr
Key Info
(technical difficulty)
(physical difficulty)Stats
General
Beautiful easy/intermediate trail with great scenery and a wilderness feel. Last mile up to the Pacific Crest trail is the only serious climbing. There was a fire here in 2004.
This trail is snowfree late May (lower 6.5 miles) to mid-November. The last mile or so, at higher elevation may hold snowcover into June.
In early August, storms caused a slide that overran part of the West Fork Methow trail. The 200 ft wide slide is passable on foot and is approximately 6 1/2 miles in from the trailhead.
The trail is generally dry and firm, with only a few seeps and stream crossings. The tread is generally dirt and fine gravel, but there are substantial areas of scree.
Most of the trail passes through a burn area. There can be significant treefall in spring and early summer, and well as following large windstorms.
Use Green Trails Maps #51(Mazama) and #50 (Washington Pass) or Amazing Maps West Methow Trails (Series MV-1) for this ride. From Mazama, drive about 6.5 mi west on Lost River Road. You will reach the end of pavement, and continue on FS Rd #5400 (Hart's Pass Rd) for about 2.3 mi to FS Rd #060. Turn left onto FS #060, where the Hart's Pass Rd starts climbing steeply out of the valley. In 0.6 mi you will reach the West Fork Methow River Trail trailhead.
Ride Reports
The USFS trail crew cleared the debris from the 2014 avalanche in November 2016 and the trail is now passable through that area. However, the Trout Creek bridge is damaged and, after 3 years without maintenance, there are lots of downed trees across the trail and it has become a bit overgro...
The West Fork Methow Trail remains blocked by avalanche debris from a very large spring slide a few years back (the slide came from the ridge across the river and crossed it). Clearing it will require Forest Service involvement as the scale and complexity of the debris field is beyond a vol...
Curious to know if the below report from 2014 is still applicable. Anyone know?
Due to an avalanche/landslide this trail is not passable. The slide is about 1.5 mi from the trailhead.