McClellan Butte — Monday, Jun. 20, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Headed out on Monday afternoon to get a few hours I-90 training exercise. At the Tinkham road trailhead the forest service was cutting down some trees and the trailhead was closed. After waiting for about half an hour we drove one exit west on I-90 to exit 38 and headed up Forest road 9020 to the "upper" trailhead (see GPS). The trail is in good condition and the two avalance chutes are manageable with a bit of scrambling, at the second chute some nice person has a left a rope to aid with climbing out of the ravine. This was my first time on the trail and the views really start to pay out early, the Duke and Duchess of Kent are beautiful as you traverse around the back side of McClellan and reach the top. On the back side approach around 5000' there is still quite a bit more snow than we expected, but it was not necessary to use microspikes. The rock climber in our group climbed all the way to the top of the butte, but the rest of us were chicken and only went partway up. This hike is truly fantastic, and it is interesting to be able to get the southward view from the I-90 mountains.