Brief intro: The route to Lightning Peak follows Copper Creek trail to the left-most portion of the trail’s loop, at which point a boot path bears left and up. From there, the route is off-trail, though there are a handful of cairns and orange markers tied to trees. The hike requires route-finding, bushwhacking (at this time of year), and scrambling. My friend and I both brought our InReach devices; he’d downloaded some GPS tracks and I’d taken photos of some user-submitted maps I’d found online.
We started hiking around 8:45am. Based on previous trip reports, we expected it to take about 7 hours. I enjoyed the Copper Creek Trail portion of our hike. While it does steadily gain elevation, the switchbacks were well-spaced, and the forest was beautiful. A previous report had mentioned an impassable slide, but that has since been taken care of. We encounter no real impediments on the Copper Creek Trail.
At the left-most portion of the trail’s loop, we veered left and followed an apparent climber’s route. Its undulating path led us to flatter expanse at the base of Lightning Peak, where we could see our objective clearly for the first time. Behind us, clouds blanketed the distance between us and Rose/Ellinor/Washington. Ahead of us, the slanting light highlighted where we needed to go—forward (and up), then left (and south) along a rock gully. We made it to the ridgeline without huge issues, though we did take an accidental 30-minute detour as we tried to bushwhack our way uphill. The tough thing about IDing cairns in a field of scree is that they look a lot like the other natural piles of rocks!
Once on the ridge, we worked our way west: first to the east summit, and then to the true summit, of Lightning Peak. We had to scramble at certain points, and I felt safe doing so without rope and in my trail shoes. The rock was dry and, for the most part, solid. Of course, other hikers/scramblers might draw different conclusions (especially during different seasons, like when snow is present).
At the summit, we took a snack break and spent time identifying the many Olympic peaks visible to us—Olympus, Anderson, Stone, Church, and many more. In the distance, we could also make out Rainier and St Helens. It took us a little less than four hours to reach Lighting Peak.
On our way back down, we overshot our route and tried descending a rock gully too far south. After twenty or thirty minutes, we realized our mistake, backtracked, and found the correct way down. This was another reminder that rock cairns and flagging aren’t iron-clad navigational tools.
The way down was tougher for me, especially contending with all the loose rock. But once we made it back to the Copper Creek Trail, the flat, soil-covered path felt like a dream! We arrived back at the car after 7.5 hours.
Overall, I had a great time. We encountered lovely views, and it was a fun opportunity to practice both scrambling and route-finding. I’m sure I’ll do this hike again in the future, but probably not until next year. Though this is in the national forest, I would not take a dog up here. And I’d only recommend Lightning Peak to folks with some previous off-trail experience. Otherwise, Copper Creek Trail by itself is the more straightforward and pleasant option.
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