Windy Pass — Saturday, Jul. 25, 2020

So if you want big views and lots of flowers, this is an amazing trail. Here is the "cost"- the road is hairy and the mosquitoes are fierce. The road to Hart's Pass is 10 miles of mostly narrow, dirt road with one part that has a major cliff on one side. I think it's called Dead Man's or Dead Horse or something Dead. But its aptly named. If you don't have a high clearance vehicle or are not a fan of slightly maintained roads or driving in harrowing conditions, this isn't the road for you. If you can get over that, the views are worth it. The road from Hart's Pass ranger station to Slate Peak is actually the most well maintained part of this road and if you do nothing but drive up here, it is worth it. The fire lookout is closed but you can walk around it.
We started our hike on the PCT towards Windy Pass, and hiked about 5 miles. It took us about 2.5 hours. The gain is as described, gentle and easy. The hard part is that you're at elevation. There are a few creeks along the way but the biggest stream is close to the switchbacks that take you up to Windy Ridge (about 4.5 miles in). The stream has a meadow and dedicated campsites by it (like 2). We went up to the ridge above that, and while no dedicated campsites, there were places where people had been before. The views were so stunning. The mosquitoes were plentiful. We needed head nets and repellent and even then they were unpleasant for us, so much so that we packed up early and hiked out the next morning instead of enjoying the view more.
The flowers are in bloom and the meadows are amazing. The colors of that cannot be captured in a picture really. And I can only imagine what that place looks like in October with all the larches that we saw.