Granite Mountain Lookout
Summit #36 of 70--September 22, 2023
Opted for a hard hike today up to the Granite Mountain Lookout west of Snoqualmie Pass and just inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Around 3,800 feet of elevation gain in a bit over four miles. It’s a popular hike for Seattle trailsters, so a busy place on sunny weekends. It’s Friday, with a near-perfect forecast, albeit on-and-off rain for the next week. So I decided to take advantage and skidoodle up there.
I hit the trail at the crack of noon, huffing up the steep, rocky path pretty much nonstop, except to snap a few photos. I’m sure I passed at least two dozen hikers coming down, especially the last mile or so above timberline. That’s where the heavily beaten trail weaves through a thousand smallish boulders.
I was alone when I reached the summit, my 36th, around 2:40. The lookout itself is not open for visitors, but the granite rock pile that forms the high ridge offered excellent views. So another 15 feet wouldn’t add much.
I sat on a rock for a few to eat my sandwich and enjoy the view of lakes and crags to the east, trying to identify the places I’d been. The summit spire of Kaleetan Peak was quite impressive in afternoon light, and I wondered about heading up there sometime. The finish, apparently, is a class three scramble.
As the clouds parted, I started down, passing a few late-comers still headed up. The descent is steep and rocky enough that it took almost as long going down as coming up. But I was back at the truck by 5:30, no worse for wear and happy to be in about the best shape I’ve been in a while. Which is one of the big reasons I’m on this peakbagging binge. We’ll see if I can keep it up into the fall, which coincidentally begins later this evening as I write this. It’s been an amazing summer, if a tad self-indugent.
But hey, I’m now at 36 out of 70 summits. Not quite where I wanted to be at the end of summer, but that’s fifty percent plus one, so it’s gotta be all downhill from here!
