WA NF-4330 11/24-25

** Edit - Trip was taken 10/24-25 **

Headed north, out of Cle Elum, to find a spot to camp. I'd never been in the area, but had read about it and seen people post pictures of the area. It's been an area I've wanted to have a look at for quite some time. I cast out a line to my regular buddies and everyone was busy. I cast out another line to a guy I had been real good friends with growing up, but really had lost contact with. I'd text him every once in a long while, but nothing more than that. I texted him the day prior to leaving and he was in. It was me, my son, him and his oldest son. Both boys are 12 years old. I found a place on Google Maps that I thought was going to be the spot and it tanked. Drove up and there was nothing there. We had passed a few spots on the drive up, but nothing that had me interested. I was bummed. I pulled over and asked if my buddy wanted to turn around and go down to one of the sports we passed. He said we should give it another mile before turning around. I put the pickup in drive. We didn't go another 100 feet and we found a turnoff that looked suitable. We drove down it and found an amazing spot.

We set up and enjoyed the evening. I had a great time catching up with an old friend and, having never met each other, the boys had a great time too. It got into the low 20's/upper teens at night, but everyone stayed warm.

 

Good looking pics!! Cle Elum area has some sweet spots for exploring or camping, if you haven't tried the Mt. Baker area give that a shot as well. We live in one of the most scenic states

 

Looks awesome. I love doing that kind of exploring. Glad to hear it worked out!

 

I'll admit to not having a whole lot of time exploring up SR20 and even less time up SR542. What I have done has been extremely frustrating with the amount of gates blocking access to the back country. The east side of the Cascades seems to have WAY less restrictions. As a bonus, on the east slope, you can actually fine wood that isn't waterlogged. The same can't be said for the west slope of the northern part of the State.

 

Unfortunately most of the gates are up because people use them as dump spots or don’t clean up their brass/mess after shooting. I grew up between Issaquah/Redmond and used to drive through the mountains off I-90 all the time and they were never gated or locked, those times are long gone.
lots of gates up here in Snohomish area but not as much as I-90. If you wanna explore sometime let me know as I don’t have any friends with 4wd so I’m usually solo.

 

Will do. I'm pretty much in the same boat. When I head out, it's usually a last minute decision, too. I'm a bit a lone wolf.

 

Looks like a great time. I want to head that way sometime to explore more of this state. Hard to go that way when the umatilla national forest is so close to me. That's my go to spot around here. And I don't think I've camped in the same spot twice yet.