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Copyright © Dan A. Nelson/The Mountaineers Books Granite Mountain
One look at the parking lot midday on any summer weekend, and the obvious will jump out and bite you: the Granite Mountain Trail is the most heavily traveled summit path in the Snoqualmie Pass corridor. Of course, there is a good reason for that: it's spectacular. But it's also steep. Mind numbingly, thigh-burning steep. You'll climb a heel-blistering 3800 feet in 4.3 miles to an old fire lookout at the 5600-foot summit, with awesome views in all directions. Pack plenty of water, as there is no good source along the trail.
The trail starts out climbing. You'll hike away from the trailhead parking area through a lush old forest and gain a solid 800 feet in the first mile. At 1 mile the trail forks. Turn right off this relatively flat trail for some serious climbing (to Pratt Lake goes left). In the next 0.5 mile the switchbacks are easy, if a bit steeper. But as you near 2 miles the switchbacks get tighter, the trail gets steeper, and the breathing gets more difficult. At 4000 feet elevation you'll get a breather as the trail angles across a tricky avalanche chute. Caution: Early in the year the upper mountain is covered in snow and ice, and the upper slopes are VERY avalanche prone. If you're here any time before mid-June (most years), pause before crossing the chute and look up the gully. If there is still snow above you, be extremely careful--slides can happen at any time. Once across, the trail starts climbing again. If you time your trek just right, you'll find huckleberries alongside the trail all the way to the ridge top. You'll also break out of the trees and start exploring wide, steeply slanted meadows. Bulbous beargrass fills these meadows in early summer, and when those white blooms disappear, lupine and paintbrush color the slopes red and blue. At 5200 feet you'll crest the summit ridge, getting a brief reprieve from the ruthless climbing as you cross a meadow. You still have another 0.5 mile or so to cover along the ridge crest and then up the summit crown, but the hardest work is behind you. Get to the top and enjoy the 360-degree views from the lookout--on some weekends, volunteers open it up to visitors.
Driving Directions:
From Seattle drive east on I-90 to exit 47 (Asahel Curtis/Denny Creek). Turn north over the freeway, turn left at the T, and drive to the nearby Pratt Lake-Granite Mountain parking area. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Blowdowns | Water on trail | Snow on trail | Avalanche danger
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I went up the "winter route", which unfortunately was free of snow until above the trees. This make...
I went up the "winter route", which unfortunately was free of snow until above the trees. This makes for some fairly significant bushwhacking. Followed pretty closely to the ridge on snow - but even in the fairly early morning conditions weren't optimal, with a couple of inches of weakly bound snow on top of a hard layer. Snowshoes did not work well here, plain boots or crampons were better. There were some places it was good to have my ice ax.
After admiring the fantastic views all around, I decided to try the summer route on the descent - especially given the low snow levels in the vicinity of the winter route. Paradoxically, there was far more snow on this route. While the cooler and still-dry weather as well as early time-of-day made the avy risk fairly low, other conditions could cause further avalanches. Also - there was a substantial zone of broken trees and brush from an earlier avalanche near a gully crossing (around 3500'). Traveling the summer route currently means some brush bashing and route finding. It's only about 100 yards long, but there's no convenient bypass (as for a avy debris situation closer to the trailhead), and you have to be careful not to miss the trail obscured by snow and debris. Lots of birds about, heard first hermit thrush call for the year! Day hike
Issues:
Blowdowns | Snow on trail
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I always mean to make a trail report. Whenever I come to look for a report, there seems to be a dea...
I always mean to make a trail report. Whenever I come to look for a report, there seems to be a dearth of off-season or ill advised adventures. I mean to do my best to remedy that.
That being said, Granite Mountain was quite adventurous, but super enjoyable and not too ridiculous on this sunny May day. Yes, there are parts of the trail that are crushed by an avalanche. Crews have clearly already been hard at work, first by cutting a detour trail where the avalanche damage is first evident and second, higher on the chute, clearing brush. That being said, the trail is gone when it gets near the elevation where it crosses the main chute. Be prepared to route find to regain the trail on the east side of the chute. We went up the east side of the chute along the edge and through the woods till we got to the trail. Don't do this. It's much easier to use the trail detour and usable trail on the west side of the chute till you get higher. We just didn't see the detour and slogged blindly ahead. We're like that. Once you connect to the trail on the west side of the chute you will hit patches of snow and then eventually be completely on snow. Just take the path of least resistance angling up and to the east. Eventually you will have a clear view to the ridge. You will probably see tracks as well. We followed the ridge back to the west toward the lookout. We met another party who had climbed directly from the top of the avalanche chute to the tower, but descended along the trail route due to the steepness of that route. They had snowshoes. Don't know if they used them on the way up. The snow is stable. We got to the top with just boots, but bring your gaiters if you have them, otherwise you'll get boots full of snow. Bring a map. Bring a map. Bring a map. And compass though you probably won't need it. Not a simple hike, but super fun and a bit of adventure. If you weren't looking for that, you'd have probably stayed home anyhow, right? Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail | Avalanche danger
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Other reports reflect the mess that the recent avalanches caused the trails.
The cut-through to ...
Other reports reflect the mess that the recent avalanches caused the trails.
The cut-through to avoid the lower chute's interruption of a switchback is fairly easy to navigate. If you continue up toward Granite, be prepared for some creative trail-finding. The upper crossing of the first chute is a big mess; best to keep your eyes down to follow the tracks of others. It's almost impossible to describe how to get through it. Fortunately I had a GPS to give me general directions to reacquire the trail's switchbacks. When you reach the main chute, you'll be fully on snow, and the trail skirts the west side of the chute which I can only assume is the winter route -- I would not dare cross the chute, as there is still a lot of snow above. As you start making your way up that trail, the conditions become challenging. The snow is very sno-cone like, so you lose a lot of efficiency as you climb straight up the slope. With my dogs and my own preservation in mind, I decided to turn back at about 3,900 ft, before the trail turned NW toward the SW ridge. It simply became a slip-and-slide slog, even with Microspikes. Snowshoes would have helped. Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail
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The Pratt Lake trail from the Granite Mountain trailhead is one of my favorites. It is a gentle, st...
The Pratt Lake trail from the Granite Mountain trailhead is one of my favorites. It is a gentle, steady incline that skirts through the woods, crosses cascading creeks, and links up to the Talapus-Ollalie connector trail. However, a huge avalanche down Granite Mountain this winter has completely wiped out the switchbacks that reach out into the main avalanche chute. A rough & ready boot track detours around the first wiped out switchback and connects up with the trail higher up the mountain. From there the trail is clean and clear to the junction with the Pratt Lake trail.
Many people were going up Granite Mountain and I don't know how far they got but friends reported from an attempt on May 12 that the snow was slushy awful up higher and they turned around. Today we turned left at the junction and enjoyed a sweet effortless hike up to the puncheons. That's where the snow begins. The puncheons are difficult right now because of remaining narrow snow crowns on the wood, yet going around them risks punching through into a snow cave undercut by the running water. It's all salt & pepper snow at the junction with the Talapus-Ollalie connector. We took the connector to the Ollalie stream crossing but judged it too dangerous to cross. The snow was banked straight up on either side about 5 feet and the water was running high over the log. We took the other trail up around Ollalie Lake. There are tracks to follow but it is wise to mark your way with sticks as well because the deep snow all looks the same under the trees. We got up to the northeast corner of the Ollalie basin where we had to stop because of a deep ravine. The snow there has been cut through straight down 12 feet on each side by running water. This is the case every winter. This would be a good place for a bridge. All in all it was a good hike and lots of people were out on the trails - about half of them totally unequipped for conditions. It's all snow from
Granite Mountain
— May 12, 2012
— James M.
Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail
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Headed up about 10 a.m. Missed the detour at the first slide and went up along the massive gulley s...
Headed up about 10 a.m. Missed the detour at the first slide and went up along the massive gulley slide and then bushwacked back to the trail. The detour would have saved a lot of time; it's maybe 75 yards before the slide and is marked with pink tape on the left of the trail at a height of perhaps 8'. (See trip report from Apr 15, 2012 by "shegoat").
Passing through the avalanche debris higher up in the gullies, esp. the first one, was slow due to downed trees and constantly losing the trail; we kept on track only with the help of GPS. Aroung 3500' snow cover was continuous except in the sunny spots, and traction devices and trekking poles were essential for anyone with sense. Beyond that, around 4000', the trail became completely covered in snow, even in the mostly open stretch that traverses eastward and reaches the first flat area at 4850'. We kick-stepped our own line up, as the snow was fairly soft at noon in the full sun of a 60° day, though postholing was minimal. Sadly, we had to turn back there due to time constraints, with the sun-soaked summit mocking us from above. We did see two sets of fresh tracks headed that way, but otherwise there was no sign of people in the vicinity. |
 Granite Mountain - near the top of the trail to the old fire lookout. Photo by Karen.
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