Teanaway Twosome - Koppen Mountain and De Roux Peak 7.6.2008
On Sunday, I headed out to the Teanaway and the DeRoux trailhead. My goal was Koppen Mountain and, if time permitted De Roux Peak.
I hiked the De Roux creek trail to the De Roux Spur trail which forks off shortly after the first crossing of De Roux creek. The spur trail switches back and forth for about a mile where it reaches a pass and starts to descend into the next valley. From this point a trail leaves the pass and follows the ridge up to Koppen Mountain.
The Koppen Mountain trail started steeply through an area of minor blowdown. After a while it leveled off and then got steep again below the summit. There was not much snow on the route and the trail avoided most of what there was. Only just below the summit of Koppen Mountain did I ever have to walk on snow.
The summit view from Koppen is pretty sweet. Just about the entire Teanaway can be seen along with the Stuart and Enchantment ranges. To the west, the higher peaks of the ALW can be seen including Lemah, Chimney Rock, and Mount Daniel. It was too hazy on Sunday to make out Rainier but this would normally be visible as well.
I descended Koppen back to the pass and then headed off to De Roux peak. There was only the faintest of boot paths to follow. The path stayed below and to the left of the ridge line and then crossed over the ridge after the second big promontory on the ridgeline. After this, I lost the trail in an area of heavy timber and snow. I realized that I had descended to far and had to climb, mostly straight up back to the ridge where I popped out after the third promontory on the ridge.
De Roux is more of a high point on the ridge than a real peak but it is higher up than Koppen Mountain. Again, a nice view. It does not appear to be heavily visited. I did not see a summit register or even a marker.
Heading back down to the pass, I followed the ridge line except to make one detour through an area of balsamroot. It was easier travelling keeping to the ridge top. Back to the pass and then back to the trailhead following the original route.
This hike was a lot nicer than I thought that it would be. The route from the pass to De Roux was a riot of wildflowers. I saw some deer and a few elk but did not see a single person the whole time I was out. All in all, a glorious day in the Teanaway.
Here are some pictures from the hike. There are more at
Looks more colorful than when I hiked that pk. a couple yrs. ago.
Too much post processing IMO. jhiker, no offense, but your pics look unnatural to me. I think it's something in your post processing technique.
Yeah,
I noticed this after I put them on Flickr. I wasn't real happy with the result. Am still learning and trying different things but this didn't work out so well.
Where were the best flower patches at? Paintbrush, Lupine and Balsam together demands immediate attention.
If you head up to De Roux from the Pass and stay below the ridge line and keep the ridge to your right, you will be seeing a lot of lupine and other purple flowers that I don't know the names of. There is some paintbrush and balsamroot thrown in as well but puple will be the dominant color.
Under the fourth promontory on the ridge line is a big area of balsamroot. You'll be able to see this from far off. The hillside is very steep but worth the effort. There is a lot of lupine there as well and some paintbrush.
The De Roux summit has lots and lots of phlox on it.
It seemed that there were some good places to camp near the pass and even further up on the ridge.
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Looks more colorful than when I hiked that pk. a couple yrs. ago.
