Hwy 410 / Mount Rainier North
The Norse Peak fire in the summer of 2017 has affected this trail and others on the northeast side of route 410. Use caution when in the burned area. Be alert for falling trees especially if it is windy. Trail has been cleared but expect soft spots and some holes in the trail.
Info
The Hwy 410 corridor northeast of Mt Rainier is one of the best riding areas in Washington, with a large variety of trail and loop options to choose from.
Here are a few trail descriptions, and please refer to the map for more info.
Skookum Flats:
A very popular trail. It follows the rugged terrain of the south side of the White River. A very scenic, technical trail providing challenge along with a nice forest experience.
White River:
A trail that's often overlooked in its own right. Since it's mainly used as a trail to access or extend ride loops of other more popular trails like Palisades or Skookum Flats. It provides technical challenge and aesthetic beauty. White River is a great trail surrounded by other great trails, and is a great out-and-back option for a strong beginner rider.
Suntop:
Suntop view provides an excellent view of Mt. Rainier that can only be equaled or surpassed by only a few trails open to bikes. A marvelous view from the top, the trail is fairly groomed and straight. Nice forest with open fast easier trail. Unlike other trails in the immediate area, Suntop is also open to eMTBs.
Ranger Creek:
Fairly technical singletrack with exposure, beautiful forests, good climbing, fun descents, technical sections and crazy switchbacks that will challenge the most advanced riders.
Palisades:
This trail has it all - technical singletrack, beautiful forests, fun descents, technical sections (with some tight switchbacks and rocky walk-a-bike's), and views of Mt. Rainier from the Palisade Cliffs that will blow your mind.
Deep Creek:
Steep and rugged, this a difficult yet great descending trail that will provide challenge for any gravity enthusiast. It is also a fun and different way to climb up to Noble Knob. Sure as heck beats riding up a road. Expect lots of hike-a-bike unless you are an expert climber - and even then.
Noble Knob / Dalles Ridge:
Noble Knob is a great alpine trail that provides excellent views of Mt. Rainier. Also an epic view of Glacier Peak, and Mt. Stuart if you stop for a look on the North side of the ridge. Noble Knob is generally used to access other trails that descend below down and along various drainages like Deep Creek, Dalles Ridge, Ranger Creek, Palisades. Mostly smooth trail that runs through a ridge of timber, and open alpine meadows. Wide sweeping views envelope your peripheral. A few challenging climbs along the Knob, and descents, as it drops you off into Dalles Ridge Trail.
Crystal Mtn:
This is a great 14 mile loop with some grueling climbs, beautiful ridges, great scenery, alpine lakes and wildflower meadows, steep sections, exposed switchbacks, and, if the summit house is open, a chance to buy some burgers and fries at the top.
Old Northway:
This is an unmaintained trail that starts at 2700 feet, a quarter mile off of 410. It rises to meet the normal Northway trail at about 5700 feet in 3.1 miles. For the most part this is only a DESCENT route. This is an alternative way to do Crystal Mountain. It adds about 1,000 vertical feet to the ride. Thanks to John Loomis.
Ride Reports
Corral Pass - Deep Creek Loop
I began this ride early in the morning at the junction of the White River Trail and Corral Pass Road. I started the climb and saw a couple cars and trucks going up early too. A little later on, I came upon a pickup and two guys who just tagged their deer. Gla...
Rode the White River/Skookum Flats loop yesterday, 6/22/19. Trails are in great condition overall, but there are 2 downed trees across the trail on the White River just at the top of the hill & another shortly after that on the descent to HWY 410. (heading in the south direction) Also there is a...
Skookum/White River loop is open for business. No more snow. A few step over trees on the Skookum side. Nice and dry, no mud, no standing water. White River is clear and snow free all the way(Corral Pass Rd to the Palisades Trailhead).
Rode corral pass/dalles ridge/palisades alone on a lovely day in late september. I parked at the Ranger Creek parking lot, across 410 then up to white river trail. White river trail was in very good shape, lovely duff. Can see some places where fire reached almost to the highway and the duff has...
First time adventuring this loop. Even with all the fire damage, and realizing it is just a renewal for mother nature in the grand scheme of things, this is truly a wonderous ride. Started at the Camp Sheppard Trailhead and headed South on the White River trail. Climbed Corral Pass Road and then...
Great ride! No bugs. Lots of tourists walking down the southern side of the loop, none on the northway side of the loop.
Did the CCW loop. Starting to get dusty in the ski area. This is an unusual ride because you are mostly by yourself on the entire climb and then hit the summit house and the gondola crowd is there. Nothing wrong with that - just be ready for the crowds. If it is in season you can get...
Did the White River —> Corral Pass —> Noble Knob —> Dalles Ridge —> Palisades loop. Was motivated by Jack’s prior report, which I can’t add much to. This whole route is clear with exception of two step overs, recent and unrelated to the burn. Trail tread is pretty soft and loose...
The Norse Peak Fire of 2017 has burned about half of this route.
Right now the trail is running good. Downed trees have all been cut, trail holes have been filled and rebuilt where needed.
The Corral Pass Road is still gated(and rumor is that it will not be opened this year)...
Shuttled a car to just below the first road crossing, since the upper-most gate was locked. Peddled up the last section of road, enjoyed the view, then rode the Suntop trail. Some of the tight switchbacks were a little dusty and loose, but overall the trail was in good shape. No trees over the tr...
Good News
All the 410 trails are now open. FS says use at your own risk.
Ranger is good for first 3.5 miles.
Palisades is in great shape from Little Ranger Peak to the bottom.
The shelter is totally gone. Burned down to nothing.
Bad News
Ranger has abou...
Trail is open and clear up to mile 3.5(4 miles from Buck Creek Parking Lot). Then I hit the burn zone and trail obstacles abound. Trees down, undercut trail, debris etc. Left the bike there and hiked a ways - snow still on the trail higher up. I did not make it to the shelter. R...
The Northway-Crystal Loop is riding well. Not too much moon dust when considering the lack of rain and time of year. Don't miss swimming in Hen Skin Lake. Smoke from forest fires may be an issue-check the Crystal Cams before heading out: https://www.crystalmountainresort.com/the-mount...
The shady N facing section between the Ranger Creek/Dalles Ridge trail junction and Noble Knob, as well as the Dalles Ridge trail going SE from the Noble Knob junction until it crosses back over to the S side of the ridge is free of snow with the exception of one very small (rideable) patch as of...
Skookum has had some re-routing trailwork done near that eroding cliff in the first mile from Buck Creek. Also the trail on the steep washout(at the CAUTION sign) has been totally rebuilt into a three foot wide path. Nice.
Suntop 60 race on July 15th will be using this trail.&...
Suntop trail is all clear top to bottom. Beargrass is just starting to peak.
Be aware that the Suntop 60 race is July 15th this year. It'll be pretty busy that day/wkend.
Rode up Ranger Creek to the cabin, continued up and made the right turn onto Dalles Ridge and rode up until I found snow. You will find snow on Dalles Ridge about 2.5 miles up from the cabin, a patch, then another, then another and the patches are still pretty deep and solid.
Skookum Flats/White River loop is rideable now. A few snow patches and some trees to step over. Soft here and there but not muddy.
Trail is in good shape(thanks EMBA) considering the shape it was in after all the winter wind storms. Ranger has a couple easy over trees and one blown out switchback you have to dirt climb up/down. Palisades just keeps getting better and is all clear. Recent trailwork by WTA in the w...
The washout area has had a "trail" and a fixed rope put in. Thin, but much better/safer than the boot track it replaced.
I parked at lower skookum trailhead and rode fire roads up. This is a pretty long steep road climb. It starts put with about 7 miles and 3200 feet of climbing before the real fun begins. You can expect to climb 400-500 feet per mile on the road. Trail is all clear on the down hill. I may have lik...
Rode it CCW this year, and liked it a bit more. Depends if you are a climber or downhiller. Northway is a great downhill because of the nice switchback slope grade. Those also make it a human scale climb. I rode most of it, and felt is was less hike a bike than CW. And its shaded which is g...
Awesome ride! We rode the clockwise loop & after doing it, I think it's the best way to go. There was a lot of hike a bike & some steep sections, going up towards Hen Skin lake. & shortly past there. Going down Northway was great. There was only 1 small fallen tree that I remember. Part of...
The downed trees that were on Corral Pass Rd on 7/16/16 are now all clear. However, the gate is still locked at the White River trail.
Rode up Corral Pass, Noble Knob to descent of Palisades.
No downed trees that I remember on any of the trails and everything is in great shape.
Still a few downed trees on Corral Pass Rd but all can be ridden under or around, if you're looking to drive up there you're out o...
Rode the corral pass road to noble knob trail to ranger creek and down palisades. Road has a few down trees, but no dismounting required. Noble knob has some downed trees that required dismounts and will need a chainsaw to clear. Upper ranger creek (above the shelter) had a few...
Suntop is clear of snow but still has enough trees across it to make it an adventure ride. 95% of the downed trees are contained in one mile of trail starting about 2 miles from the Road/Trail intersection. This mile has about 20-25 trees and most are in 2-4 trees down together bunche...
Top sections of both Pallisades and Ranger Creek are poorly maintained and contain numerous obstacles: blowdowns, slides and debris. Still a great ride. It'll be better when the forest trail gnomes return with more shovels and chainsaws.
The heat on the climb was nearly unbearable. Surprisingly enough, there were still a few patches of snow at the top, but not enough to warrant a worry though. After the trail crosses back across the road after the summit and heads uphill again, we noticed quite a few small trees downed across the...
Ranger Creek trail is clear to Little Ranger Peak(first 2 miles) then wrecked the rest of the way - blowdowns, entire switchbacks gone, big rootballs to navigate over/under/around-these are not just "step overs."
Palisades has lots of blowdown - you will be scratched up and out of the sad...
White River Trail is now clear of all downed trees from start to finish.
Skookum is cleared from Rd 73 up a little past the falls (2.6 miles) then a couple big messes of downed trees before a nasty bad washout at mile 3.8
From Buck Creek Rd the trail has been cleared for abo...
This Saturday we had a great trip. I was conquering the trails with my mountain bike and my friend was hiking. We parked at Buck Creek Campground and started our journey with Ranger Creek trail. It was in a great shape right up to the Little Ranger Peak sign. After that the adventure started: big...
White River Trail is clear from the upper trailhead(near the Corral Pass Rd gate) to the Boy Scout Camp. Still trees down between the BS camp and the 410 end.
Skookum is tree free from Rd 73 to 2.6 miles - just past the falls. The next 2 miles are still not logged plus there i...
Just like the last poster stated, the trail needs some clearing yet. There are still a good amount of trees to hike your bike over. We turned around just after the falls when the trees and trail were too hard to wrestle over. Unless you live close, I'm not sure if it's worth the ride. Yet.
Skookum/White River has lots and lots of trees down across the trail and some washouts.
Good news is that the Skookum Trail is mostly cleared from the lower trailhead to just past the falls. Most are singletons to step over or around but Skookum still has 2 messy spots about halfway...
At least 6 tree crossings the first mile up Ranger Creek. Lots of blow downs that need removal. Even the White River trail has a major blowdown 1/2 mile from Ranger towards Deep Creek. Let me know if anyone is going out there to work on this, I can help.
Lots of single trees down(about 20 or 30) for the entire loop. There is one or two where you have to think about how to get around/over, the rest are pretty easy. Even though it was cold, the tread was surprisingly grippy and fun. Rides like this build character. :)<...
Been doin this loop since the early 90's. Too bad its so far for us north enders to get to but defiantely worth your while to make the trip at least once a year. I've never done it counter clockwise and don't understand why people would want to and miss out on that awesome northback downhill. We...
Escaped the lowland heat for the big trees and big views the 410 area provides. The trails are in great shape, with Ranger even having a slight carpet of evergreen needles on it in places. We climbed Ranger in the morning humidity and parts of the trail are definitely showing signs of wear and te...
Rode Noble Knob and Dalles Ridge of part of a White River/Corral Pass/Noble Knob/Dalles Ridge/Palisades loop. Perfect day for it - mid-to-high 90's F down in the lowlands made for perfect outdoor-napping temps in the subalpine. The gate on Corrall Pass Road is still locked, so no cars...
Rode Palisades as part of a White River/Corral Pass/Noble Knob/Dalles Ridge/Palisades loop, and found the trail to be in much better shape than expected. Had not ridden it since the '14 Enduro, and was expecting a lot of residual evidence of damage - but only found a few small areas that you cou...
Rode Skookum S-to-N as part of the CCW Suntop-Skookum loop. Trail is in excellent shape at the moment. Hero dirt all the way.
Rode the Suntop-Skookum loop starting from the lower Skookum parking lot. Suntop is in great shape now, but will be getting dusty soon if we don't any rain. Just a couple of sandy patches on the way down. Only two wet stream crossings: the usual year-round one, and a smaller trickle higher up. So...
This trail is virtually snow-free and all the blowdown has been cleared. Gate at the bottom of Corral Pass Rd is still locked so you gotta earn it.
Rode the full loop Saturday starting at the bottom of skookum, riding up FR 7315 to access the trail at top and finished on trail. No snow at Fire lookout. Beautiful sunny day of Mt. Rainer. Did hit snow in a few places when heading down trail at other highpoints. Trail was stellar and ran into n...
Skookum is drying out. No more standing water but still lots of soft spots. Big news is that the HUGE "Tourist Tree" tree located at the end of the campground(if you do the S/WR loop you ride right by it) has fallen. Looks like the FS did some chainsaw work to make it safe. Trail now...
While riding up Northway last July we decided to explore the beginning of Old Northway which we had read about here and from another report. We followed the beginning of the "trail" for a few minutes and found it to be the faintest goat path imaginable. The underbrush is more disturbed than other...
Fawn Ridge is the bottom 1/3 of the Suntop Trail. Trail starts where the Suntop trail crosses the logging road. You access this trailhead by climbing this logging road.
I stayed to the road(7+ miles) all the way up. Road is still gated at mile 3. There is spotty snow the last...
Rode the White River Trail up and down. Wet and slick but no mud and no standing water. One big tree down near Rd 72/410 trailhead. A couple of smaller trees on the upper part (near Corral Pass Rd).
Skookum Flats - White River is 100% rideable right now. There is a little snow here and there but all compressed enough that riding it is easy. You will have to step over a few downed logs.
Few things: White River Trail is a LOT more sunny than Skookum -- that equals warmer/drier etc.<...
Lots of fun on this ride. From buck creek up coral pass road. I pushed up the steep part of the noble nob trail by the horse pitching stands. Pedaled the whole dallas ridge trail then back to ranger creek+palisades. Love this ride. Views on palisades are amazing. Awesome trail. Few Techical secti...
This is one of my favorite trails. The upper section of trail was in amazing shape, dry with good climbing traction and not too loose. The trail below the Fawn Ridge roads are in pretty bad shape. The logging a few years ago left the surface loose and deep, and the shuttlers hav...
Did the loop CCW. Going up Northway there are signs of heavy horse usage. Trail has been brushed - not sure if this was done this year or late last year but not so overgrown.
They are blasting/jackhammering the top of Powder Bowl so have closed that section of the downhill trail.&nb...
One very minor snow patch to walk over(25 feet) - will probably be gone in a few days. Trail is all rideable.
The Corral Pass road is ungated and snowfree.
The trail is all dry and just turning dusty so grab it before it all turns into a sand pool. In the forested sections, it was perfect tacky and not wet at all. The vistas, of course, were awesome mainly thanks to the bluebird day we had. The fire road is pretty dusty already, though - fortunately...
They are actively logging off a side road about 2 or 3 miles up the Suntop road. Be on the lookout for trucks but probably not an issue on weekends
We did not go to the lookout so I have no info about the upper trail piece. Still 5-7 easy to step over trees and some minor snow to pu...
Started at Camp Shepard and rode White River to Buck Creek. Crossed the hwy then up the Buck Creek Road about a mile or so to the church camp - "Berachah at Buck Creek" entrance. This is not a private road and you are allowed to cross this property. Ride in and go left to the end and...
We were denied from fs7250 to deep creek yesterday at about 40" on snotel corral pass. We lost the trail in the switchbacks and climbed up to see over ridge down to the south facing terminus where noble nob slips from south to north before entering the snowy switchbacks. Snow patches down there c...