Government Meadows

Government Meadows opens a wide pocket of grass and wildflower in the timber along the Pacific Crest Trail, just west of Naches Pass. From the short approach off Forest Service Road 787, the trail eases through second-growth fir into older timber and breaks out at the meadow edge. The Mike Urich Cabin sits at the western corner — a wood-stove shelter with a sleeping loft, maintained by volunteers and open to all comers.

The setting is a piece of Washington Territory history. The Naches Wagon Trail crossed here in the 1850s; ruts from the road can still be picked out in the grass. Elk and deer use the meadow at dawn and dusk through summer; lupine, paintbrush, and avalanche lily move through the meadow in waves from June into August. Mosquitoes are heavy through early summer and ease by mid-August.

This is shared country. The PCT runs through, but motorcycles and four-wheel-drive trucks use the historic wagon route on weekends, and snowmobiles cross the meadow in winter. Hunting traffic picks up in fall. The shortest route in is sixteen-tenths of a mile round trip — a quick option for families willing to take the rough drive in.