Trip Report
Day Hike - Grand Prospect
What a glorious Veteran's Day adventure to Grand Prospect with 10 bird species, a fleeting rainbow, super cool spider webs, and VIEWS between storms. Couldn't have asked for better.
Courtenay Schurman
- Tue, Nov 11, 2025
- Day Hike - Grand Prospect
- Rattlesnake Mountain (West)
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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We arrived at 6:45 for a 7 a.m. start with very few cars in the lot. On our return at 11:30 AM the lot was overflowing even to parking below the 30-spots, primarily with mountain bikers, but also small groups, dog owners, and one large hiking group (16) taking advantage of Veteran's Day.
Have a current Discover Pass at the ready. The toilets have TP but my goodness, they sure do STINK. The toilet seat in the women's was cracked/chipped (about 1/4 missing) which may be adding to the stench.
The trail is in fabulous condition, springy and pine-needled making for very comfortable travel. We only came across one step-over and no standing mud. Be aware that there is no running water on this route, and bring appropriate fluids according to your length of travel. This mountain shares access with mountain bikers who fortunately have their own trails, or this would be a pretty chaotic place to hike! Glad we got an early start; my guess is the holiday made this November Tuesday an outlier.
Our early start meant we had the foggy mountaintop to ourselves with plenty of hikers heading up as we returned. Several hikers in our group needed to be back for afternoon appointments so we opted to turn around at Grand Prospect instead of tacking on East Peak.
We encountered a few hikers with offleash dogs. I heard a few mutterings in my group, but both seemed very well-behaved and we had no incidents.
Highlights on the morning included beautiful perfectly illuminated spider webs, a fleeting rainbow high overhead at Grand Prospect, great people, some fleeting views, and ZERO RAIN.
