Oregon Hikers

I climbed to the top of Jumbo Peak near Randle, WA. The area was hit with several road washouts a few years ago. Here's some info to help the next guy that tries to get there.

The conventional way most hikers get to Jumbo Peak is via the Sunrise Peak trail (#262) near the end of road 2324, which is presently closed. That road washed out several years ago and it looks like they are nearly done repairing it. An alternative to Jumbo Peak (about 6 miles to the top) is via the Dark Meadows trail (#263)

The Dark Meadows trail is kinda hard to find now but easy if you know what to look for. The trail head is on road 25 at a place that was repaired recently. From Randle, cross the Dark Creek bridge (about 22 miles from Randle) and look for a section of newly repaired pavement at a wide place in the road with no trees between the road and East Canyon Creek on the right. The trail entrance is across the creek at a small "263" sign meant to convey ID and difficulty information to motorcycle riders. The creek was easily rock hopped to cross but there is no bridge so I would imagine that crossing would be difficult in the months there is snow melting or heavy rain.

Here's the road with my car parked: Now for a question: Just northeast of Jumbo Peak is a steep wedge shaped mountain. It appears like it should be climbable. Does anybody know how one would approach it to climb? Here's the view looking north capturing Unknown Wedge Mountain, Mt Rainier, and Sunrise Peak from left to right.

John,

Thanks for the TR and info on access. I'll have to give the new route a try.

The "wedge shaped mountain", ≈5,620' el. is on listsofjohn.com as Sofibida Peak. I climbed it on Sept. 8th 2015 after doing Jumbo Peak. I don't know how it got that name and haven't found any other reference for it. Here's a TR I posted at the time.

It's an easy walk-up/scramble from the SE side using goat trails though you will have to push through some waist high bushes. Here are some photos:

From the side of Jumbo:


Approaching the summit:


From the summit looking back at Jumbo:


The steep east side:


dn

It kinda annoys me that "Sofibida Peak" has a name on exactly ONE web site with no references or explanation.

Don Nelsen wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2019, 10:26 am

Thanks for the TR and info on access. I'll have to give the new route a try.

My GPS track for the day:

Don Nelsen wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2019, 10:26 am

It's an easy walk-up/scramble from the SE side using goat trails though you will have to push through some waist high bushes.

Thanks. That's just the info I need. Onward and upward.

Thank you for great directions in this TR.

I closed out my "project" on July 17, 2020. I bagged Sunrise Peak, Sofibida Peak, and the incidental and easy Peak 5445. Road 2324 was closed last summer to repair a road washout that affected three parts of the road. The road is now repaired. It's slow going with a regular car but doable and safe.

The tour totaled 8 miles from the trail head on Road 2324, which was a way easier route than climbing Jumbo Peak from Road 23. Wildflowers were abundant and found just about everywhere sunlight hits the ground.

I was amazed to find so many Lilies, the most plentiful flower in some areas. I had always thought these were called Tiger Lilies but online resources indicate that Tiger Lilies are non-native. These had to be native plants because of how widespread they were. Can anybody ID this lily?

My favorite are those blood red/black Indian Paintbrush flowers. I've only seen them on Mt Hood at high elevations. The ones on Mt Hood have more purple than the Dark Divide ones.


If you go, fair warning: You'll see more motorcycles than hikers. All my motorcyclist encounters were cordial.

Addendum:

The Lily is officially called a Columbia Tiger Lily. We locals just call it a Tiger Lily risking confusion with the non-native Asian Tiger Lily.

Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium_columbianum