This is another one of those drive-by-it-a-billion-times-but-never-stop kind of hikes but today was the day I changed everything by stopping.
I had the place to myself as I wandered the trails and although it was open, the visitor center was not.
I walked the memorial loop first and read about the firefighters who have lost their lives in our area. What a beautiful way to remember them with plaques on the rocks and burnt log.
Next I walked back to the amphitheater on the interpretive trail and gazed up at the lookout above. I hadn't seen a legend for the trails so far so it wasn't clear what lead where (or that it was a loop) and at this point the trail narrowed on a descent and was covered with pine needles so I decided it wasn't for me today so I turned around and went the other way towards the Chelan Butte lookout.
After the Chelan Butte lookout I walked back to the visitor center and checked out the East Flat Top LO which was open. It is all laid out with the equipment they would have used back then but no bed! This left me wondering where the lookout staff would sleep. I found a good post about the lookout, it is linked it below.
From here I headed back to the car, time to get on the road and over the pass before the forecasted snow comes in!
I am dropping a link below that has a map of the current trails, I hope to hike the entire system on my next stop.
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