Storm King Mountain 4750 in South Cascades is a lowland peak accessible all year. The mountain’s 2230′ prominence has earned itself a spot on several climbing lists. The summit also boasts a view of three volcanoes when the weather is decent.
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Storm King Mountain at a Glance
Access: Fro 550 Timber Co. Road (access info)
Round Trip: 10.4 miles
Elevation Range: 1600′-4750′
Gear: Snowshoes
Route Info: Robert Jenner
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: yes
Return to the South Cascades
While waiting for the snow to clear, we explored more of South Cascades on Storm King Mountain. It isn’t Mount Storm King by Mount Muller, but the on with a similar name south of Mineral. We’ve visited the area several times in the last two months.
I first saw this place while hiking to Stumptop. Knowing we would spend the most time on the road, I waited for more snow to melt before visiting. Then here we were, over a month since my first sighting of the mountain.
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Walking Through Massive Roadways
To say Storm King Mountain has a plethora of logging roads is an understatement. The place looked like a maze on the map! In addition, most of the roadways didn’t join, and some of them would dead end.
From the gated entrance northwest of the mountain, we walked the main road while moving southeast. Later at the road’s end at 2600′, we left the path and went up through the light brush. Soon, we reached the upper roadway at 3000′.
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Summit Ridge Traverse
Soon, I put on snowshoes in continuous snow at 3200′. Eventually, the road took us up to the summit ridge in another 200′. Later we reached the path’s end at 4200′. Then we went up the north ridge on the occasionally dry trail.
Soon, the trail faded by the second growth. Finally, though, it seemed that the standard route would bypass from the east. But we stayed on the ridgeline and came out onto a steep clearing above the trees.
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Misty Views on Storm King Mountain
A short 200′ climb would eventually take us up to the top. But as luck would have it, more clouds had rolled into the area earlier. So it wasn’t long before the mist had taken over the area.
Later the clouds cleared, and we could see into Pleasant Valley at last. But the best view to the east and south were nonexistent. It would’ve been great to see three volcanoes!
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Outro
I wanted to bypass the steep north ridge on the way out. So by dropping down on the eastern slopes, we avoided the annoying second-growth altogether. Then we went around the east side of the mountain to reach the trail.
The road walk back to our starting point was rather unexciting. But one thing that stuck out on this trip was the amount of clearcutting the area had undergone. I hope that the logging companies have made the trees into meaningful use.
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Thank you for another set of scenic pictures. The trails do not look unexciting, still beautiful. One can see the big contrast of the hill that your dogs were making the final push was covered in snow vs the other hills were not. Interesting.