Old Snowy Mountain - Elk Pass, Goat Lake — Tuesday, Sep. 14, 2021

This was a super gorgeous hike--the Goat Rocks are amazing! 

We did a two-night, three-day backpack loop that included a hike to the top of Old Snowy Mountain, a hike along the "knife edge" on the PCT to Elk Pass, then doubling pack and up to Goat Lake, then up to Goat Ridge and the final leg of the loop into Jordan basin and back to the car. 

We parked at the Snowgrass Flat trailhead (trail #96) on Tuesday around noon. Lots of cars there, but lots of open parking spaces available. The trailhead starts out relatively high at about 4,600 feet, so the 3.6 miles up to Snowgrass Flat is not very strenuous--it only gains about 1,400 feet in elevation. The view opens up nicely at Snowgrass Flat. There are two water sources at Snowgrass. There is a steady brook to the right as soon as you step out of the trees and into the meadow--it's about a 1 or 2 minute walk. The other water source is a stream on the Lily Basin trail about 5 minutes after you come out of the trees. Make sure to fill up your water bottles at Snowgrass Flat--we didn't see any water sources between Snowgrass and Old Snowy (although we were told there was a water source five minutes from the trail #96 junction at the PCT).

There is no shortage of places to set up your tent at Snowgrass Flat--a network of trails around the meadow will bring you to many ideal tent pads.

After a brief rest at Snowgrass Flat, we hiked up to connect with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and then up to a large snow field at the base of and final approach to Old Snowy. Beautiful open meadows and a geologist's paradise. We camped at a spot not far from the snow field at about 7,000 feet where you can see Mt. Adams to the south and Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) to the north.

We also had a nice view of Goat Lake across the basin. Incredible views! Right next to where we camped, a tent pad with a substantial rock wall wind break is available (it had cement holding the rocks in place), but it was a bit too small for our 2+ REI tent.

After our first night in fog, some rain, and strong winds (one gust in the middle of the night broke one of our tent stake cords) we woke up to clear skies and amazing views. Being mid-September at 7,000 feet, it was cold and we found ice on our tent. The climb to the summit of Old Snowy was easier than I thought it would be--there was some brief class 3 scrambling with little or no exposure. But it was super cold windy! The higher we went the more windy it was. Wear lots of layers! 

We then went down the other trail leg of Old Snowy back down to the PCT and along the "knife edge" heading north. Still high winds, but the knife edge wasn't scary or precarious at all in my opinion.  Again, amazing views--Tahoma was breathtaking.

After looking down on Elk Pass, we turned around, went back to our campsite, packed up, and headed back down to Snowgrass Flat. We then headed up the Lily Basin trail (#86) to Goat Lake. Lots of established tent pads along the way. For a mid week in September, we were surprised to see so many fellow backpackers at Goat Lake. I think there were about eight different parties all camped there, but the area around Goat Lake is large and there was plenty of space and still plenty of unused camp sites. We camped near the cliff overlooking the Lily Basin and had an in-your-face-view of Mt. Adams. I recommend finding a low spot if you want to minimize wind.  During the night, a mouse chewed through my tent and two layers of plastic to nibble on my granola, so I learned the hard way (again) to put your food where the critters can't get to it.

We woke up to a spectacular view and clear skies. We headed up the trail over Goat Lake and to Goat Ridge, which was stunning. Yummy ripe blueberries on the approach to the ridge. We then dropped over the ridge into Jordan Basin which was gorgeous with a great view of Mt. St. Helens. Down in the first bowl, there is a huge tarn--don't camp in or near it. We were told it created quite the sand storm during the night. 

The rest of the hike back to the car was beautiful and uneventful. Jordan Basin was mostly a traverse and we didn't start really descending until the last 1.5 miles or so. We arrived at the Berry Patch parking lot and then followed a path parallel to the road for about a half mile to our car at Snowgrass trailhead.

Throughout the trip we saw several hunters and quite a few fellow backpackers. But it wasn't crowded at all--the perfect balance of solitude and comradery with with other hikers.