angel's devil's rest loop

10 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain • 1 night

got a really late start, so i needed something close to town with a campsite just a few miles in.

angels rest. got to the TH at about 6pm and started booking it uphill. i've never been up there. sign at the main parking says "day use only" but that's the state park rules, no signs pertaining to overnight parking. i got off without a ticket at the overflow parking, YMMV.

it was starting to look like it was getting dark even though it was only 7:30 or so. I started further east to find the supposed campsite just past angels rest. at this point it started to really rain and walking through the stand of hemlocks (i think) made it really dark. i decided to stealth camp there as it was flat, and wasn't sure how much further the unknown campsite was.

there are a few relatively flat spots sheltered under the conifers with lots of nice soft moss. off course at this point it's pouring, and almost dark. i get my tent setup and don't leave it until after breakfast this morning when it was still puking rain, cooking in the vestibule. looks like i have a few weeping type leaks in my test and it dripped straight on my face at least 10 times. fun :x

in the am i headed off towards wahkeena trail and realized the campsite was less than 1/4 mile further. d'oh! for future reference, the angel's rest campsite (dunno if it has an official name) is just east of the mist creek under some huge cedars.. rock fire ring, old picnic table, tons of water (in spring anyway).

after i filled up my hydration bladder i continued mostly downhill to wahkeena through some brand new deciduous forest, looked like dogwoods?. after that it's straight uphill, feels like, to devil's rest. i completed the loop back to angel's rest trail via the foxglove trail which doesn't appear on most of the public maps. it uses a bunch of the old forest roads which have been mostly re-taken by nature

devil's rest really is a bit anti-climactic as people have said. although, today was probably worse than usual since the whole area was socked in with dense clouds until about 11am. there are several "better" viewpoints just east of devils rest. lots of places to camp all along the ridge, as well as a bit down fox glove, but nothing established.

just a few hints of snow up there on devils rest from the night before.

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