Solitude on a sunny Sunday, starting at HWY 410, I hiked up the Ranger Creek trail to Dalles Ridge, and then to Noble Knob (see picture 4 or the attached Caltopo map). Starting at 5:10 and finishing at 10:45, the only people I encountered were a camping couple on the top of Noble Knob. I was surprised I didn't see anyone, these results are not guaranteed. This 15 miles hike has about 3800 feet of elevation gain. 90% of the tread is good/fast and it was really fun to motor both uphill and down.
The 5.5 miles up to Dalles Ridge is forested, there are lots of views along the next 2 miles to the summit. There are many forest flowers blooming at the top of Ranger Creek. In the first few miles your eye might be caught by candystick (picture 3), western coralroot, and gnome flower (cover picture). Along Dalles Ridge, there are thick lupine and arnica blooms (picture 2). Noble Knob has lots of flowers, hillsides of phlox, purple violets, some paintbrush and columbine, stonecrop, and many, many more. Noble Knob has great 360 views, with Tahoma beautifully dominating.
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