Naches Trail — Saturday, May. 27, 2023

Headed out to the Naches trail before it opens up to vehicles on July 15. Despite the signage on NF-70 stating that it's closed, there's no signage where vehicles can first enter and there were definitely tire tracks along the trail. We started from NF-7065, which is the aforementioned entrance, skipping the first obstacle-strewn 0.6 miles. The trail is steep from the start, rutted and rocky. At time we hiked up a rut 7-8 feet deep - not sure how vehicles get up some of those sections. It was a peaceful hike, save for the gunfire from down the road, but that soon faded as we got further away. At times the trail is steep and loose and at times level and wide. Snow starts intermittently about .35 miles from where it crosses NF-7080 then pretty much solid from there, but easily walked on without too much extra effort. Had a good mile over snow then headed downhill to NF-70. From there we could have continued east another mile to Government Meadows. After having a bite to eat, we headed back but down NF-70 for a short section to check out the road conditions. Good amount of snow there and we saw a vehicle turn around and another stopped right around NF-7080 where we headed back onto Naches and down.