Flower show is spectacular right now. Go there while it lasts.

Some of my hiking friends recommended Bean Creek Basin as a great spot for wildflower viewing, so my son, wife, and I headed to the Teanaway area to check it out. We arrived at the Beverly Turnpike Trailhead around 10:30 on Tuesday morning. My car’s outside temperature gauge read 68°F. There were just three other cars in the large parking area. Note: there is no toilet at this trailhead.

We began our hike by crossing a sturdy bridge over Beverly Creek. At 0.4 miles in, we reached the junction where the Bean Creek Trail splits off to the right. From there, the trail follows alongside Bean Creek. At 0.8 miles, we crossed the creek—it was an easy rock hop and not difficult.

The hike up felt hot, as we were exposed to the sun most of the time. Some steep sections were slippery due to loose, dry dirt, especially on the descent. We encountered six fallen trees across the trail, but none were difficult to step over.

We arrived at Bean Creek Basin camp around 12:45 p.m., and the basin welcomed us with an explosion of color—vibrant purple monkshood, fiery red paintbrush, delicate white angelica, and a wide variety of other wildflowers in full bloom. While at the basin, we ran into two women from Ellensburg, who, coincidentally, knew several members of our hiking group.

After lunch, we followed an unofficial trail toward Bean Peak to get a closer look at the flowers scattered throughout the basin. I’ve never seen so many monkshoods in one place—it was spectacular.

Although the heat made the hike a bit challenging, we were more than rewarded by the stunning scenery and the wonders of nature. Even though I applied bug spray, a mosquito and a fly still managed to feast on my arm.

Our GPS track is in the link below.

Stats:
Distance: 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,165 ft
Highest Point: 5,840 ft (Bean Creek Basin)
Total Time: 5h 24m

Got to the Bean Basin trailhead ~2pm on Saturday, with plenty of room for parking. Access to the trailhead was easy even in my prius (just keep slow to avoid the potholes).

Ascended the Bean Creek Trail to Bean Basin and set up our camp there. The weather was hot (>85F) and while the Bean Creek Trail has many points along the way for easy water access and filtering to refill water bottles, we got pretty hot as the trail is very dry and exposed (without a lot of tree cover). We had my black 30lb dog with us, and he got somewhat overheated on the hike in, so we took an afternoon break in the meadow at the Bean Basin campground and set up our camp. The wildflowers are phenomenal, and there were just two other groups in camp with us; plenty of room for more folks. Bean Creek is still running just next to the campground, providing easy water access.

After dinner (~6pm) we went back to the junction with the trail to Earl Peak and turned up to ascend the peak. Hiking up to the top of Earl was steep but the trail is easy to follow and required little to no scrambling. The views along the way were superb--Rainier, Adams, Mt. Stuart, and the backside of the Enchantments. Gorgeous lighting in the evening! The trail from Earl along the ridge to Bean Peak was trickier to follow, requiring us to check our GPS at points and do some scrambling over larger boulder sections on the narrow ridge crest. This was especially tricky with a dog, requiring some sections of carrying him or passing him between hikers to get across sketchier sections. Since this traverse took us much longer than anticipated, it was getting dark (~9:30pm) just before we reached the turn off trail back down to Bean Basin. We ended up scrambling down some sections of scree in order to get down faster (and avoid some gnarly boulders which my dog refused to jump across). This was a little hazardous, but we got back into Bean Basin camp by 10pm, with only a little section of walking with headlamps required.

The next morning we left camp around 8:30am and ascended Bean Peak. The hike up to the ridge from Bean Basin is steep but straightforward. The scramble up to the top of Bean Peak was again particularly challenging with a dog, and at a few sections required carrying or passing him over larger crevices. The top of Bean Peak once again boasted phenomenal views. We followed the trail from Bean Peak down to the connection to Hardscrabble Trail (just before Volcanic Neck)--this trail follows the ridgeline and was very straightforward (keep an eye out for spectacular serpentinite rocks!)

We turned left and followed Hardscrabble Creek trail down through gorgeous meadows of wilfdlowers (yarrow, columbine, even some tasty wild lovage). Passed several streams to filter water from and refill bottles. Steep descent to meet up with the Beverly Turnpike Trail. At this point we were close to Beverly Creek for most of the hike with plenty of water and nice views (talus fields galore). However, the trail here is also pretty exposed and dry this time of year. Once again my dog became pretty overheated in the noon-day sun (partly his behavior b/c he hates getting wet so refused to cool down in the creek along the way). We ended up having to carry him the last half mile to get him to car AC as soon as possible, but thankfully we found some wild blueberries to munch on in the last section which propelled our energy to finish! When we got to the car my thermometer read 95F(!), which was definitely too hot for a little black dog. Once he cooled off in the car he started drinking again and is back to his chipper self after a well deserved rest day.

All in all, a wonderful spot to camp and a fun adventure! Although I caution against bringing furry friends out if the weather is too hot, and use your best judgment on some of the scrambling sections with your four-legged companions.

What a beautiful trail. Easy to follow. What makes the trail hard is the heat. So be sure to take plenty of water. I bought a water bottle with a filter, so I can fill up with fresh water from the creek. Don't give up. Make sure to make it all the way to the basin. The mountains and wildflowers are stunning. 

I came out here for the first time last week to do a quick dayhike up Bean and immediately thought to myself, I gotta get back here ASAP, so that's exactly what I did. See other recent TRs for details about the more well-traveled paths, otherwise the bottom line is that it's essentially perfect right now: the flowers are full bore, the bugs aren't bad, there's plenty of water, and it's just on the cusp of too hot.

Got a fresh, early start and dropped camp at Bean Meadow around 8; only one camper packing up to leave, but the large group I passed on the way up left hot coals in the fire pit so I drowned it out before heading out again. No idea what the rules are for fires here, but that one is a no-brainer. Anyhow, switched over to my daypack and backtracked a bit to head up towards Earl, intersecting with another group at the saddle. They went to summit, but I continued on to the next pass on my way towards Novaho. Lots of great flowers in this section on the open eastern slope. Some extremely minor snow patches at the bottom of the next pass, but the steep switchbacks are totally clear and there are no further obstacles of note. The next section heading towards the junction with the trail to Navaho had tons of columbines and some of the first thistle I've seen this year, among other flora. Went up the pass, stopped for a minute to marvel at the Enchantments (and more flowers, and also the rocks!) then went up Wrong Turn Peak - a steady, steep climb. I was a bit worried about descending on the other side, but it was for naught - I'm not crazy about soft scree, but it's definitely easier going down than up and all of the remaining snow is well off-trail. The next segment heading towards the saddle behind Bean was especially lovely, especially since I don't believe it gets much traffic. That also means the trail disappears at times, so my GPS proved handy more than once, but the views and the surroundings are just stunning. Then, yet another short but steep accent up yet another pass where I got blasted by high winds and was forced to stash my hat, followed by a right turn, and a traverse around Volcanic Neck out to Devil's Head. The path is easy enough to follow when it counts and, while the ridge does get narrow, it felt safe for someone like me with a low risk tolerance. Summited, hung out for a minute to check my email (it's baffling to get signal out there), then reversed course back down the ridge, up and over Bean, and back down to the Meadow (where it was fully packed and no one had any fires). Tremendous day, might need to make it an annual thing.

Excluding the pack in/pack out sections, Strava says 12.5 miles and 5k of climbing.

On a gorgeous late June Saturday, Cable<3 and I set out for a Teanaway loop: up Bean Creek Basin, up Bean Peak, down to the saddle before Volcanic Neck, over on the county line train, and back via the Beverly Creek trail. 

The drive to the trail head was a little rough but fine in Cable<3's low clearance, AWD car. While the parking lot was full around 11am, it's easy to park along the road. There are no bathrooms at the trailhead, but you can find one at the Beverly Creek campground.

The hike up to Bean Creek basin was a lovely start to the day. We stopped to collect some water around 5100', near the turnoff to Earl Peak. We continued on to Bean Creek basin, where we found a trail all the way up from the basin to the ridge that connects Bean and Earl.

At the ridge, it becomes a find your own adventure situation. Approaching Bean Peak, we stayed left, avoiding a long chute we saw some nimble trail runners descend. We got too low at points (onto some kitty litter) and corrected by getting up higher on the ridge, onto more solid rock. 

Closer to the summit of Bean, there is a saddle that leads to a 30+ ft gully (pic below). We thought the gully looked kind of sketchy to go up - the only place to hold on was a long crack that started above both of our heads, and a fall from this area would not be good. So, we made a joint decision to turn around.

Soon after turning around, though, we heard some people above us talking about an alternate route. We went back and asked them about the route and 1) it turns out I once went on a Hinge date with one of these people (small world!) and 2) they were completely right about the alternate route. If you're reading this, thanks so much for the tip, it made our day!

Around 10-15 feet below where we'd been trying to go up the gully, around the corner from a "scraggly" tree, there is a less intimidating gully with better holds. We went up, scrambled a little more, and then reached the summit of Bean. We took in the views, had a great summit chat with two pairs of other hikers, and then set off to complete our loop.

The descent from Bean, going towards the saddle before Volcanic Neck, was easier than our ascent route. It was a hike rather than a scramble, although the trail in this area is "unmaintained" and so there is some minor routefinding to be done. We found that staying as close as we could to the top of the ridge worked best. Near the base of Volcanic Ridge, the turnoff to the County Line Trail is obvious.

We continued West on the County Line trail, admiring the many wildflowers that served as a nice, friendly contrast to the starkness of Volcanic Neck. We reached the Beverly Creek Trail, which was beautiful in the evening light. Eventually, we crossed over Bean Creek to return to the Beverly trail head. Note that between the Volcanic Neck saddle and Bean Creek, there are multiple water sources for filtering water.

As usual, it was a five star day in the Teanaway. And of course, I'm already plotting my next routes in the area.