Rattlesnake Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain - Grand Prospect — Saturday, Mar. 23, 2024

After leaving a car at Rattlesnake Lake (where there was plenty of parking on this rainy day) we got to the Snoqualmie Point Park about 9. I've never been there, and I followed Google Maps. This led to me totally missing the signs pointing towards the main trailhead, instead parking in the lower park. The connector trail isn't long, and there was plenty of parking everywhere, so that wasn't too bad. Bonus: the bathroom in the park is a flush toilet, unlike the vault toilet at the main trailhead.
As trail quality goes, this one is top notch. wide, smooth, perfectly graded, with soft evergreen needles carpeting it. We didn't encounter much snow until Grand Prospect, where the whole clearing was covered in a thick layer. The benches are falling off the mountain, though one was usable. We laid down a tarp on the snow, and had a picnic. The views were lovely, with mist coming and going around the mountains.
As we hit the clear cuts farther up, views opened up more to the south, with Mt Rainier visible. We encountered more and more patches of snow, some of which were slippery and substantial, but we didn't need spikes.
This was a peaceful hike. The trees blocked the sound of the freeway, and between Grand Prospect and just above the Upper Ledge, we only encountered a few trail runners. Of course, that changed once we hit the lower ledge. Though we had Upper and Middle to ourselves, after the lower ledge, we easily saw as many people as we had on the entire mountain.
Gaia said we went exactly 11 miles, in 7.5 hours. A very satisfying hike.