Rush Creek "Lake", abandoned Chenamus Lake Trail (bobcat)

The shore of Placid Lake, Indian Heaven (bobcat)

Bear-grass (Xerophyllum tenax), Rush Creek (bobcat)

Silver fir forest on the Pacific Crest Trail (bobcat)

Inquisitive marten, Placid Lake Trail (bobcat)

GPS track of the loop described here (bobcat) Courtesy: Gaia GPS

• Start point: Placid Lake Trailhead
• End Point: Bear Lake
• Distance: 10.1 miles
• Hike type: Loop
• Elevation gain: 1460 feet
• High Point: 5120 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Seasons: Summer - Fall
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: Yes
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

This backcountry loop takes advantage of the abandoned section of the Chenamus Lake Trail to travel through woods and across a series of meadows to connect with the old Cascade Crest Trail, then the Pacific Crest Trail. You descend to the trailhead along the length of the Placid Lake Trail. The abandoned section is fairly easy to follow, but can be difficult to locate in meadows; it has not been maintained at all in recent years, so expect to circumvent blowdown. You need a good knowledge of the area to do this loop and should know how to orient yourself well in wilderness.

From the parking area, there are views back down the road to Lone Butte and Mount Saint Helens. The Placid Lake Trail #29 enters the woods at an information board and a wilderness permit box. The woods here consist of silver fir, Engelmann spruce and mountain hemlock with a few western white pines. Huckleberries and white rhododendrons dominate the understory. The wide trail crosses a footbridge and enters the Indian Heaven Wilderness. The trail continues to a junction, where you go straight through a meadow to Placid Lake. You can walk along the shore here, but return to the main trail to continue the hike. There are various campsites at the lake.

Back at the junction, go right. At another junction where the trail braids, keep right and come to a four-way junction. Go straight (left is the unmaintained former route of the Placid Lake Trail and right takes a straight course back to Placid Lake). The trail rises to the Placid Lake-Chenamus Lake Trail Junction, where you should go right on the Chenamus Lake Trail #29A. This trail drops with a dry creek to the right, and then rises to cross the rocky creek bed. Pass by a meadow and reach Chenamus Lake, which also has campsites. The trail continues along the western shore of the lake, with three kinds of huckleberries ripe for the picking in late summer. The south end of the lake is an almost completely enclosed little bay.

The unmaintained section of the Chenamus Lake Trail continues along the shore of this little bay passing a talus slope and through a small false hellebore meadow. The trail rises steeply up, levels, and then rises again in silver fir, mountain hemlock, and huckleberry woods. Cross a dry creek and rise, passing a tarn on the left. After a short rise, the trail drops to cross a draw. Wind up again and cross a small meadow. Then the trail heads up and crosses a larger heather meadow. Descending again, you'll cross a meadow and reach the bed of Rush Creek, which here is actually a series of dark pools by late summer. The trail keeps to the east side of this lake, crosses a meadow, and then passes over the exposed jumble of volcanic rocks that form the bed of Rush Creek. With the creek to your left now, head along an extended meadow lined with silver fir, noble fir and mountain hemlock. Cross the rocky bed of Rush Creek's south fork, still in the extended meadow. The trail heads up in woods and then crosses another meadow. Elk tracks may criss-cross the way. The trail winds gradually up with the rocky bed of the dry creek to the right. Reach a large meadow with a lake and keep to the left side of this meadow. Pass a through a gap in the trees and reach another vast meadow. Keep to the left side here and find the unmarked Chenamus Lake-Cascade Crest Trail Junction, the latter trail (the CCT) being well-used in this area.

Go left here, recross Rush Creek, which should be dry here in summer/fall, and pass across another opening into woods. The CCT rises to pass between dark Acker Lake on the left and a small lake on the right. Head steeply up to a junction with Trail #176, the Elk Lake Trail. Large Bear Lake glistens below. You have the option here of heading left 0.4 miles to Elk Lake (see the Elk Lake Add-on Hike). Otherwise, go right about 70 yards, the trail splitting to the Pacific Crest-Elk Lake Trail Junction. This looks like a four-way junction, with the abandoned trail that cuts to Cultus Lake straight ahead.

Make a left here in old-growth silver fir woods. The PCT rises, dips, and rises and you get a view of large Deer Lake below. The path levels and rises below a talus slope to the Pacific Crest-Indian Heaven Trail Junction. Keep left at the junction, and rise gradually along the west slope of Bird Mountain. Small meadows appear below as well as traces of the Cascade Crest Trail. Hike on the level with a talus slope to the right and small tarns and meadows down to the left. The path undulates before rising one more time to the Pacific Crest-Placid Lake Trail Junction.

The Placid Lake Trail heads down to the left through the woods. Cross a meadow and then traverse down the side of a steep ridge above a talus slope. Level again to pass open glades and drop past a small lake. In this area, there are a few spots where trees came down over the trail in a 2020 windstorm. After this, you'll be winding gradually down in silver fir woods. The path continues to traverse down, making two wide switchbacks before descending to the Placid Lake-Chenamus Lake Trail Junction, where you make a right for the trailhead.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• $3 toll each way at the Bridge of the Gods
• Self-issued wilderness permit at trailhead
• Wilderness rules apply

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Indian Heaven Loop Trail Placid Lake to Acker Lake Map (Ancil Nance)

• Note: The abandoned section of the Chenamus Lake trail is not shown on the following maps.
• Green Trails Maps: Lone Butte, WA #365
• Indian Heaven (USFS)
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Adams Wilderness, Indian Heaven Wilderness, Trapper Creek Wilderness
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Adams Ranger District
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Gifford Pinchot National Forest
• National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount St. Helens - Mt. Adams

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Placid Lake Loop Hike

• Bear Lake Loop
• Chenamus Lake-Acker Lake-Placid Lake Loop 9-15-22
• Placid Lake Loop
• 8/11-8/12 Indian Heaven - Chenamus Lake/Placid Lake Loop (berries and mozzies)
• Indian Heaven - Abandoned trails (and fall colors) 9.20-22
• Indian Heaven / Tr 29A Loop - 06-Oct-2012

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Placid Lake Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this destination

• 33 Hiking Trails: Southern Washington Cascades by Don & Roberta Lowe
• Indian Heaven Back Country by Mel Hansen
• Hiking Washington's Mount Adams Country by Fred Barstad (Placid Lake Trail)
• Hiking the Gifford Pinchot Backcountry by the Columbia Group Sierra Club

More Links

• Trail #29 Placid Lake (USFS)
• Trail #29A Chenamus Lake (USFS)
• Trail #2000 Pacific Crest, Mt. Adams area (USFS)
• Indian Heaven Wilderness (USFS)

Page Contributors

• bobcat (creator)