Agnes Gorge
Stehekin,
Washington
Overview
The Agnes Gorge Trail in Stehekin is a scenic and relatively easy hike, meandering through a mix of shady forest and more open areas, with the first mile of the trail within the North Cascades National Park. Clocking in at 5.5 miles roundtrip and under 500 feet of elevation gain, it is a great family hike and one of the few in Stehekin that doesn't have a lot of elevation gain. While you won't get sweeping views of the surrounding mountains, there are partial views of the glaciated Agnes Mountain, as well as the Agnes Gorge a couple of hundred feet below the trail.
The trailhead is a short distance past High Bridge, which is 11 miles from the landing and the last stop for the Stehekin shuttle bus. To reach the trailhead, cross the High Bridge and go past the Agnes Creek / Pacific Crest trailhead, where you will find the Agnes Gorge Trail on your left. The trail is roughly 2.5 miles one way, and dead-ends a couple hundred feet above Agnes Gorge. You will get your first views of Agnes Peak and Agnes Gorge roughly 1.5 miles into the hike.
Directions
Parking
Trip Reports
I was looking for a short family hike on Saturday morning, as we were scheduled for guided fly fishing at 1pm. It was a toss up between Agnes Gorge and Stehekin River trail, but Agnes Gorge won out as we would be floating down the Stehekin River in the afternoon and I was interested to explore the area around High Bridge. We had a truck with our cabin rental, so after the obligatory breakfast at the Stehekin Pastry Company, we drove on up to High Bridge. For some reason I thought the road was closed past High Bridge, but it wasn't, and we continued driving and found a small pullout right next to the trailhead.
We had gotten a bit of a late start, and decided to hike for roughly 50 minutes before turning around - I didn't think we would have time to reach the end of the trail. The trailhead sign helpfully indicates that the Pacific Crest Trail / Agnes Creek trail is farther down the road, making sure no thru-hikers mistakenly take this trail.
The trail starts with a little bit of elevation gain, and if you look backwards, there are some nice views of McGregor Mountain. This part of the hikes mostly passes through forest with a decent amount of shade, suitable for an afternoon hike. There are occasional open spots, but for the most part, it's a relatively shared hike. Mosquitos aren't something I typically worry about on the lower reaches of Lake Chelan, however, I know Stehekin can have mosquitos, especially at night and out of the sun. We had loaded up on bug spray, but fortunately none of us noticed any mosquitos or flies for that matter during the hike.
The trail was in good shape. There were a couple of spots which were a bit overgrown; however, we were hiking in shorts and t-shirts and none of us seemed to mind. There was a stream which required walking over some logs on the ground to avoid getting wet.I imagine in the spring and early summer this might be a bit more challenging to get across, but in August there wasn't much water flow.
Less than a mile in on the trail, you pass out of the North Cascades National Park and into the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Like many other access points into the North Cascades National Park, it's not restricted and if you happened to miss the sign you wouldn't even know you were in a National Park.
My son and I continued to hike along with my wife and mom a short distance behind. We startled a mountain grouse and watched it fly up into a nearby tree, flying once more out of sight once we got closer. About 1.5 miles into the hike, we were able to see Agnes Mountain through the trees. There was a bit of snow left on Agnes Mountain, and to the right and behind there was a large glacier, which I believe is Chikamin Glacier on Dome Peak.
Not long after, we were able to see down into the Gorge and make out the light blue waters of Agnes Creek. It wasn't the greatest vantage point, and we never got a real good view of the gorge and the creek. I'm not sure if we would have gotten better views if we had hiked to the end. Oh well, there is always next time!
As we were nearing our turnaround time, we encountered a fawn and doe on the side of the trail. While the fawn sauntered off once we approached, much to my surprise, the doe didn't seem to mind us and kept munching on leaves as we walked past. I walk by deer all the time around my house in Manson, and usually they give me a little more space, but this doe was intent on eating as many leaves as possible.
We walked a couple minutes past the doe, took in our final views of Agnes Gorge and then turned around and headed back. I had been hoping we may see a black bear, as my son really wants to see one, but no luck on this trip. I think we were a little early, once the berries ripen a bit more I think the likelihood of seeing a beer would have been higher. We had nice views of McGregor on the way back, but no other wildlife sightings.
I wish we could have hiked to the end, and maybe had better views of the Gorge, but it was a nice hike to get out with the family given our time constraints. And we stopped at High Bridge on the drive out for some views of the Stehekin River...
