The Tatoosh Wilderness

I was working out in Packwood yesterday and found an unobstructed angle to take a profile photo of the west side of the Tatoosh Wilderness area. It just made me that much more anxious for the snow to melt out!

The view from the top of Tatoosh Peak looking towards the southwest.

One of my favorite wilderness areas is the small Tatoosh area just north of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. It is basically a ridge between the Butter Creek and Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River. The south trailhead begins at the base of Butter Peak and passes just to the right of the peak itself. It is a tough climb of about three miles. You drop modestly to Bum Springs before climbing slowly along the slopes of southern Tatoosh Peak and over a small pass (you can see the trail on the photo now).



The trail continues to a point where it meets the northern trail out of Butter Creek Canyon. The junction is a bout a mile from the Tatoosh Lakes themselves.

Tatoosh Lake fill a glacial canyon among the Tatoosh Peaks.

It is a fantastic wilderness despite being just a dot on a map!