Chief Joseph Mountain is the backdrop for the town of Joseph and Wallowa Lake. Even though there is no trail to the summit, people regularly summit from Wallowa Lake to the east. There’s even a Strava segment for that ascent. But this route is from the less used side at Hurricane Creek. You will have to bushwhack your way through a bunch of shrubs in the lower elevations and the route up will be steep.

The trail begins at St Mary's Glacier Trailhead on a wide, rocky forest road heading northwest. Keep left of all offshoots, and within clearly drawn property lines on each side of the road. The road-trail rises quickly through a high subalpine forest that breaks suddenly across a bridge across the outlet of St Mary's Lake (.45 miles : 10,738'). The trail is somewhat ill-defined but intuitively followed along the NE shore toward the snow field. It narrows on a clearer path through dense willows and emerges on the north shore just below the snowfield.