Great day to be out. The ridge close to the top of rock mountain has some views that are worth the hike up. Hot day so I would have been tempted to jump in the lake if I had time

Unfortunately, I lost my trekking poles at  next to the parking lot so if anyone finds them I would be super thrilled to the get back so please let me know! Jrdeluis at gmail dot com

The parking lot is just 100 feet from the road so not much of an issue even for a low clearance vehicle in my opinion. The hike starts step with LOTS of short switchbacks . Shade was not very frequent although there were some shaded section in which to take a break from to heat and sun

after about 3000 ft, the trail forks with a clear indicating sign. The left side goes to rock mountain and the right side goes to the lake. We decided on the summit.

the views from the ridge that leads tot he summit are fantastic. The whole hike is snow free with no access to running water. The summit has some bugs but not too bad.

overall, highly recommended if you are looking for a day objective with great views. 

Rock Mountain is a very hard hike but the views at the top are worth the effort. I ended up tracking almost 9 miles and 4030' elevation gain. Doing this hike earlier in the day would be wise. I did not do that; got a late start and decided to go for it. It is very exposed for the first couple miles. I am a pretty quick hiker and it took me 3 1/2 hours to get to the top; lots of stopping and to be honest, thoughts of turning around. BUT I endured and finally reached the top! 

The trail is not in great shape in some spots. The problem is it's so steep and it's carved right into the mountain so there is definitely some degrading. If you have poles, watch your footing, and take your time you should be fine. There were a few blow downs and one that you need to crawl over a large tree. If you can do this hike you can make it over that tree, though. There is also some overgrowth here and there but I have seen way worse. 

The bugs were a nuisance on miles 3 and 4 but were terrible at the summit. Definitely want to bring bug spray! 

Once you zigzag up what you think is the final push, you want to go right and follow that ridgeline to the true summit. Insane 360° views! 

Short road to TH is in pretty bad shape. I put my jeep in 4 wheel drive just in case. There is a spot for one maybe 2 cars right at the entrance off of Hwy 2 before the nasty part of the road. Also, I saw a car parked there that ended up taking about 2-3 spots with the way they parked. I couldn't of parked behind them because then they wouldn't be able to pull out and turn around. Please be considerate when parking. I know it's not a popular hike but it is a small parking lot. 

Anyways, moral of the story this is a very hard hike and please be prepared for that. But, if you can do it, it's totally worth it!

Beautiful hike that feels a bit off the beaten path, even though it is right on the highway. Rough terrain definitely makes you work for this one and the mash potato snow doesn't help. The ridge was snow free, so if you can make it up the snow to get to the false summit, the path to the summit is clear. 

Road/Parking: Right on 2, but very rough entry and limited parking. Only room for about 6 vehicles and not much room to maneuver. All the vehicles we saw were SUVs with some clearance. We claimed the second to last spot around 10 on a nice clear Sunday, but it is early season. 

Trail: Starts out with an easy maintenance road, but soon turns into a narrow steep path with a narrow couple sketchy sections where the trail is crumbling around the edge. The trail gets full sun for much of it so it feels hotter than it is. The bugs were vicious, making stopping for breaks less than ideal. Flowers were lovely and there were ton of different kinds. 

We hit snow about 3 miles in, just past a little lookout where you can see a pretty basin with a waterfall. It comes and goes, but was consistently soft and slick, prime for post holing, although not very deep. My dog thought it was the best, but the rest of us struggled a bit. It was a lit more fun on the way down, when gravity wasn't playing against us. The bugs seemed to leave as it got snowier, yay! The snow made the trail a little tricky to follow at some points. 

When you get to the base of the false summit there are some pretty big snow fields to cross. The cornices on the ridge look intimidating, but they are not above the trail. There are a couple spots where slipping would be bad, but it didn't feel too bad with spike and poles. Halfway up the snow turned to bare switchbacks and it was a bit more climbing, but clear from there on. When you make it to the top of the false summit you realize how much higher the true one is. From below they look nearly parallel, but nope. 

The summit was stunning, 360 degree views with a great view of Glacier and the lake below with bits of ice floating in it. We even could see a sliver of Rainier, Adams, and Baker peeking out. To me, this felt harder than Mailbox (old trail) and Teneriffe via Kamikaze, but great views throughout. 

Stats: We did it in just under 7 hours, with a moving time of 5.4 hours. We clocked 8.4 miles and 4080 ft elevation gain. 

Decided to do this hike for two reasons. First, the access is easy, as the trailhead is right off of Hwy 2. Secondly, the southern exposure suggested snow would be minimal. The hike starts out following a dirt access road up towards transmission towers. Other than the one sign at the start, there are no other direction signs helping you stay on the right road. Basically take the first left and follow it to where it almost ends at a point where the road becomes more steep and less defined as it heads up below the towers to the right. The trail will be found at the very end of this rougher "road". The buzzing you hear from the transmission towers will soon go away as you head up the trail. However, the sound of traffic on Hwy 2 will be around for a much longer time.

After a couple of hours of zig-zagging, the trail begins a long upward traverse towards Rock Lake. It was in this stretch where I first encountered snow. Just patches at first, but soon it became solid snow cover. Using an ice-axe and boot spikes, I continued on. It was not easy because you had to traverse a sloping snow slope devoid of any discernable tracks, which required kicking steps in almost the entire way. At some point I lost the trail completely, but continued on based on the assumption the trail had to be somewhere nearby.

After a long traverse, I climbed a steep snow slope to get up to the spine of the ridge, which the map seemed to indicate was where the trail went. Once on the ridge I was able to get good views, and could clearly see the mountain not far above me. Continuing up the snow just to the east of the ridge I eventually got up to a point not far from Rock Lake when I reached my "turn-around time".

The way down went much faster than the way up despite the fact that there were no good glissading opportunities. Eventually made it back down to my car about ten hours after I left it (my turn-around time was based off the believe it could've ended up being closer to a 12-hour day - which is about my limit these days). If not for the snow I may have made it the entire way. May need to wait until late June until this hike is more doable.