3.8 hr
Overview
Avid hikers will enjoy this loop that takes you 2500 feet up forested slopes to the meadows, bogs, and viewpoints at the crest of Zigzag Mountain. The loop begins at Riley Horse Camp and is described in a clockwise direction, taking the Cast Creek Trail up to the Zigzag Mountain Trail, with the more interesting Horseshoe Ridge Trail being used as a descent. At a crest viewpoint, you’ll get vistas up and down the Cascades from Mount Rainier to Mount Jefferson, with the west face of Mount Hood exposed in its entirety. From the Cast Creek Trailhead in Riley Horse Camp, follow the trail across lichen and moss carpeted Old Maid Flat to join a wide trail, where you turn right. If you’re beginning at the alternate trailhead, you have two options: (1) hike decommissioned FR 1825-380 up to where the Cast Creek Trail crosses it; or (2) follow the wide sandy path, ignoring trails coming in from the horse camp on the right, to cross a small tributary of Cast Creek, which you can hear but not really see. Then head up a shady slope of Douglas-fir and hemlock to cross the overgrown road bed of FR 1825-380. You’ll need to fill out a wilderness permit at the station. The gently graded trail proceeds upward through the salal to switchback above a gully. The route winds around the head of the gully, where you’ll see some larger Douglas-firs. Note also the rotting old snags in the forest, reminders of a long ago fire. The trail crosses a footbridge over a stream and then makes eleven switchbacks up to round the nose of a ridge. The rhododendrons here will be blooming in July. On the crest of the ridge, the trail drops before rising again in five long switchbacks. Keeping near the crest of this ridge, the path becomes bordered by bear-grass and bunchberry, making more switchbacks and a couple of longer traverses. As the tread steepens, you’ll switchback up through a bear-grass/rhododendron corridor and arrive at a high crest with a mixed forest of lodgepole pine, Douglas-fir, cedar, mountain hemlock, silver fir, and noble fir. H
Trail Stats
0.0 km
1132 m
1486 m
0 m
—
Photos
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
400px-CastCreekHorseshoeRidgeLoopMap
400px-CastCreekHorseshoeRidgeLoopMap
250px-Confluence_of_Lost_and_Cast_creeks%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-Confluence_of_Lost_and_Cast_creeks%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-Washington_lily_%28Lilium_washingtonianum%29%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-Washington_lily_%28Lilium_washingtonianum%29%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-View_to_the_Horseshoe_Creek_bowl%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-View_to_the_Horseshoe_Creek_bowl%2C_Horseshoe_Ridge_Trail
250px-View_to_Cast_Lake%2C_Zigzag_Mountain_Trail
250px-View_to_Cast_Lake%2C_Zigzag_Mountain_Trail
250px-Footbridge%2C_Cast_Creek_Trail
250px-Footbridge%2C_Cast_Creek_Trail
400px-Mt
400px-Mt