Photos from this trip can be found here.
Weather looked to be about the same as our first visit from three years ago. This time the canyon was warmer and more vibrant wrapped in fall colors. From Highway 97 Alternate turnoff to pullout parking on Swakane Road was about three miles. Parking area was straight across from Swakane Road and Road 5215 junction, which was gated at the time.
Just like the time before, from the car pup and I aimed for the northeast trending ridge and scrambled the ridge to 4,000′. We followed an old road not on the maps northeastward and connected with the aforementioned Road 5215 to saddle west of Swakane Peak. Left the road just past the saddle and scrambled up west ridge to summit.
On the way back we followed Swakane Peak’s south ridge to south saddle, then continued to follow south ridge to 3,600′. We made a quick stop there for photos of Wenatchee, then followed southwest rib straight down to the bottom and came out before the gate at Road 5215.