Cougar Lake and Little Cougar Lake Trail is a 11.5 mile lightly trafficked out and back trail located near Goose Prairie, Washington that features a lake and is good for all skill levels. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, birding, and horses and is best used from June until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
dogs on leash
birding
hiking
horseback riding
nature trips
walking
forest
lake
views
wildlife
From Yakima, drive west on Highway 410 to Bumping Lake Road (Forest Service Road 1800). Turn left and drive 17 miles to the trailhead at the end of the road.
Wonderful hike with some amazing views, bugled with a couple bull elk on the way up to swamp lake, took us 5hrs to hike in, found a great camp on the big cougar lake overlooking the beach, elk bugled from 8pm to 5am, was a great night! Took a short three hour hike Sunday morning up into the bowl above the lakes got some great views and could even see a little portion of bumping lake way in the background from up there. Was a 4hr hike out and only seen one other person at cougar lake and he was on horseback having lunch then riding back out, we were the only ones up there for the night, one of the most beautiful places I have been for sure!
This is an amazing trial that is much longer than most reviews. We started from Swamp Lake Trail (970) and then we took trail 958 towards the lake, it becomes 958a shortly after. It took 4hrs to get to the Cougar Lakes. There is some nice spots for camping. We stayed 2 nights and during that time we saw a few more campers and hikers. Also on the Ridge we saw some elk, this was in the month of July.