[jhiker]

Went out to Dirty Face Lookout on Friday. The trail begins behind the Wenatchee Ranger station on route 207. The first part of the trail rises moderately through forest and then meets up with an old logging road. It travels along the road for maybe half a mile to the road's end and then it switchbacks up to the summit. The lower part of the trail travels mostly through forest and then breaks out into some views after a small, but pretty water fall. There are lots of wild flowers along this part of the route. There are some lupines, balsamroot, daisies and a lot of others that I don't know the names of. Mostly there were three colors that dominated, white, yellow and purple. There were also some orange flowers thrown into the mix. It looks like most of the route has burned at one point or another. For most of the hike, the burn did not get into the tree tops and while most of the tree trunks were charred, many trees survived and the underbrush is making a comeback. There are a couple of sections futhter up where the fire burned much hotter and nothing survived. Right after where the trail leaves the road, there was one really nasty blowdown which fell almost straight down the trail. It looks like someone started to saw this up and then stopped. Once past this, the trail switches back and forth straight up the mountain. There weren't so many flowers in this section but once near where the snow is, there were lots of yellow lillies. I'd say they were tiger lillies but they didn't have any stripes on them. The snow started near the top - maybe about 5 or six hundred feet below the summit. To be more precise, I counted sixty switchbacks between the bad blowdown and where the snow started. The snow was still pretty hard in the morning and not all that easy to walk on. It was easier going down as the snow had become softer by then. From the summit you get views of the Entiats, the Dakobed range and Glacier Peak. To the south are the Chikawaums and Nason Ridge, Mounts Howard and Mastiff along with Rock Mountain anchor Nason ridge to the west. There are many other peaks, too numerous to name. Good views of the Wenatchee and Napeequa valleys. The lookout is long gone but there is some kind of remote weather station set up in its place. The traverse over to Dirty Face Peak looks like it needs to melt out a little further before it becomes too practical. The area immediately around Dirty Face peak and Dirty Face moutain has melted out pretty good but there is still a lot of deep snow in the trees between the summits and the lookout. I did not see any tracks going through the snow so it looks like no one has tried it yet. I'd strongly recommend this hike to anyone who wants to get out and see a good early season wildflower display. Even if you don't want to go all the way to the top. The best flowers right now are on the lower trail. I think that the lillies further up are going to be real nice in a week or so. One word of caution; if you do go on this hike, take plenty of bug juice as the mosquitos are out in force and very hungry!

Burn down low

Burned trees higher up on the trail. Even two years later, there is still not much regrowth.

Lupines

Flowers along trail

Orange Flowers

Lillies

Dirty Face Peak and Mountain from Dirty Face Lookout

Entiat Range

Dirty Face Mountain and Peak

Closeup of Glacier Peak

Closeup of Rock Mountain, Mount Mastiff and Mount Howard.

Close up of Clark Mountain

Deer

Wierd waves on Lake Wenatchee