West Summit Loop 1A

The signage on this trail is absolutely nonexistent and we ended up getting lost and having to walk a dangerous road back to our car with our 5 year old in tow! Whoever wrote the description on this app didn’t bother to say which trailhead to take, right or left? Saw zero wildlife on this “wildlife trail” and there are some beautiful open meadow spots but not very much tree coverage so most of this hike was HOT. US Forest service needs to do major work to this trail before anyone should consider hiking it!

We took our 9 and 10 year old children on this trail today. It was beautiful and easy enough that they did not complain at all. The struggle is that the trail has been mostly reclaimed by Mother Nature. There were some spots with an obvious trail marked by blue diamonds but in other areas we were using gps to find our way. It’s not an area we were worried about getting lost in, but in some of the meadows, foraging our own trail turned out to be tricky. I do recommend this hike, just be sure to have your gps handy!

I’ll second the use of GPS. You start out obviously following a Jeep trail. But about 10 minutes in there is a VERY obvious and well marked trail to the left (blue blazes seen on trees, just like Jeep trail). We followed the very well marked trail through a couple of beautiful alpine meadows all the way to the summit before realizing that was NOT the 1A loop. Oops... I tried to find the loop trail on the backside, but my hiking buddies decided out and back would be just fine. We did see a deer that hopped over the tall grasses to escape our notice. Anyway, don’t assume which way to go - check the map. Out and back to the summit was 2 miles total.

Wildflowers were amazing, kids made it all the way! Do not do this trail without GPS, you’ll lose the trail in the meadows, but you’ll be rewarded if you make it! Go clockwise for easier elevation if you’re with kids.

Definitely more of a cross country trail. We lost the trail in the meadow about a mile in. Pretty wild flowers but there are many better trails in the steamboat area.

This hike is stunningly beautiful. If you have bad knees you may want to take hiking sticks for the downhill and if you have to bushwhack as we did. The satellite map download is a must for this hike, you will frequently lose the trail. A huge tip; if you want to take the trail clockwise, start up the main trail from the parking area and in about 600 feet, take a sharp left, almost a u-turn onto the clockwise direction trial. Yesterday and today there were three balloons tied to a tree where you take the left u-turn but those can disappear in the future leaving this turn unmarked. Yesterday we thought the balloons were trash and continued to walk straight, taking the counter clockwise hiking direction. Occasionally you will see blue diamonds on the trees but you cannot rely on these to mark the trail. The satellite map which was critical to staying close to on-trail ate up my battery life. I would take a back-up battery device.

Beautiful. Only drawback is highway traffic. Lots of snow.

Clockwise traversal on a partially cloudy day. Snow quality was mostly a mixed bag of packed powder and crunchy sun-baked powder. great stump with a view for lunch break at about 2.5 miles in. some good steeps leading to the summit. Easy to share with skiers.

Great trail with good combination of terrain. Great markings, easy to follow & lots of fun.

fun times

Really fun! Counterclockwise is hard but fun

Went today in the middle on some snow and fog but no wind at all. The trail is as challenging but has beautiful continuous rollers that allow for effort and rest alike. Bring water, your favorite “victory” drink and snacks as this will test your endurance if the snow is deep. Love it!

I'm out of shape, in my mid-30s, and did the 1B loop in about 4.5 hours. Solitude, beauty, challenge, photo ops. Great fun.

It doesn't seem like 1A or 1B is accurately represented on AllTrails, at the moment.

Was a great loop: so much amazing powder! counterclockwise is definitely harder ;)

Beautiful hike with enough ups and downs to make it interesting! I should have followed the advice that I read on several reviews of this trail and gone clockwise, but alas, I failed to listen and went counter! There is a rather large incline to get up to the meadows and I’m certain it would have been easier coming down than going up. No worries, though, either way is beautiful!

Challenging hike but great views from the top.

Took approx 2.5hrs clockwise, great views...will definitely get your heart rate up in a few spots.

Definitely do it clockwise.

Great snowshoe hike. To catch it clockwise you have to have sharp eyes at the beginning of the trail. Turn left at a small Hill where you'll see tracks. Otherwise you're taking the more difficult counterclockwise route. Took us three hours at an easy pace on the steeper route.

We hiked counterclockwise from parking area. There is no trail to speak of since it primarily a x-country ski trail. It is marked periodically with blue diamonds nailed to the trees about 12' up. Use this app to keep you on track or you will get lost. The blue diamonds will give you assurance. The first mile is uphill either side with a nice hike along the meadows on top. Uneven terrain most the way. Short pants not recommended due to amount of knee high vegetation.

Just finished 1A today, massive amount of snow up there. It's alot better going clockwise as the climbs are broken up vs. the long up hill going counter. Just a perfect snow shoeing and beginner Xcountry track, as the hills are mostly gentle.

This trail should not be hiked by novices. The scenery was beautiful and the hiking was fairly easy for the first 2 miles. After that the trail was so overgrown that we lost the trail and after leaving the wooded area we no longer saw the blue diamond markers that marked the trail. Thanks to the satellite map of this App we were able to find our way back to the highway. This 3.5 mile hike turned out to be a 4 mile hike with a couple of very steep climbs and untraveled wilderness. We made it back safely and we were very happy to see the main road back to our vehicle.
Thanks for the great App