Raft Mountain stands up above Clearwater, a steep pyramid on top of a green plateau.   The back side of the mountain is all cliffs and the final section of the hike is on a narrow rocky ridge.   There is a long (21 km) gravel road approach on backroads.  The road is suitable to most vehicles until the last 2 km.   The last  kilometer is high clearance for sure and possibly 4WD, but many hikers park lower and just hike the last section.   The upper plateau area is being actively logged so the access road is radio controlled.  When I drove up on a Sunday, there were some vehicles on the backroads in the area communicating by radio (RR28), but we did not encounter any loaded trucks.   An access route description is provided below.

From the parking area there is a short section through the woods until we emerged into a damp sloping meadows.    From there the trail is all steep.

The first goal is the west ridge of Raft.   the upper meadows become more rocky and the vegetation is shorter.   A few stunted trees dot the hillside in the upper subalpine zone.

There is a smaller radio tower on the west ridge.   The route bears east. climbing the ridge to the summit.

From the upper ridge, the Trophy Range is only 5 km north.    The 4 eastern summits of the Trophy Range are shown here:

To the south is Dunn Peak and the Dunn Range, the highest peak in the southern Interior.   Raft Mountain is in a south to north succession of peaks in a line.   Dunn – Raft – Trophy – Table – Battle – North Wells Gray peaks.

Below us on the north side is Crystal Lake which collects the meltwaters from the north side of the Raft Peaks.

 

Crystal Lake drains down to “Kidney Lake”, which in turn drains down to Spahats Creek.

There are 5 peaks in the Raft Range, arranged in a C shape with the meltwaters of the central cirque draining into Wills Lake 1850 feet below.

Below us was Spahats Hill, best accessed using the Cirque of Tarns trail.

The route from Raft 1 to Raft 2 and beyond can be done along the summit ridge, but it has several difficult sections, including some exposure.   It is documented in another article – Raft Traverse.   I explored the ridge to scout out an easier route, but it still involves some scrambling down, but the alternate route has much less exposure.

The western end of the Trophy Range is about 9 km away.   Long Hill is on the far left, then Trophy 2 and Trophy 1 (the highest point at 8455 feet) with Silvertip Creek Valley in the middle.

It is only 3 km to the top, but it is steep so it takes 1.75 to 2.0 hours.   Coming back down is easier but still is a steep route.   If vegetation is wet, we have to proceed carefully.

 

The Raft Mountain Trail is 6 km return.   The steep route climbs 1900 feet.   The views are worth the long drive on backroads and the demanding route.   So much of the trail is out of the trees so we also can enjoy the flower meadows up to the ridge and the alpine fell fields (broken rock) above.    A future hike will be from Willis Lake to the summit ridge near Raft 3 with a loop route back down.

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• Raft Mountain Road: