Alpine Scramble - Hidden Lake Lookout & Peak

I initially had this scheduled for a bit over a week ago with a plan to scramble it from the lookout junction south of the peak but then air quality turned out bad and I had to cancel it. For the retry yesterday I added the option to scramble the peak from the north side along the ridge line and boi was I glad that we took that route!

TL;DR for anyone going for the peak: do the traverse from the notch north of the peak, it's really fun granite scrambling and it's no more technical than the more bouldery ascent from the south side (all T3 in my opinion). Take the trail to go down which makes this a nice lollipop route.

Getting to the trailhead: The one spot on the forest road that has a deep rut is indeed a doozy and it IS worse than how it looked in pictures and videos (e.g. https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report-2025-08-11.071156837500)  but we made it up there in my Mazda 6. It took a couple of attempts finding the right line and to deal with my front tires spinning... AWD / high clearance is definitely preferable to get up there and one other sedan was parked right before that pothole and gave up and I guess walked the rest of the way (4 miles)?

On the trail: Approach was uneventful; trail in very good shape, first in forest (I guess nice to have some shade if it's actually sunny) then open slopes. Couple of smaller bubbly creeks but no water access at the higher elevations.

Off-trail: We peeled off the trail around 5,400 ft, after the trail wraps up its switchback shenanigans and turns  SW to mostly retain elevation. We scrambled a bit up a dry creek bed on rocks and then got onto a minor ridge where a climber's trail magically appeared. On the way down the regular trail I tried to find the junction for that trail but I didn't notice any obvious fork. Regardless it's straightforward to gain the ridge even if you're going straight up on either heather slopes or continue in rocky creek beds.

Once on the ridge you probably have some very nice views on a clearer day. It started to sprinkle a bit here and there but otherwise stayed dry, fog rolled in occasionally. From here we turned S to get to the main peak. There was a faint climber's trail here and there but you can also just choose your own adventure. Stay on the ridge, likely gain some minor bumps  and you'll eventually get to the fun part: some really nice scrambling up big granite slabs and blocks. You can easily stay in T3 territory all the way to the top but you can also make it as challenging as you like. Let me repeat this: it was foggy, there were no views, but I really REALLY liked the granite!

Once on the peak the downscrambling towards the trail junction for the lookout required a bit more care; rock here is less slabby and started to get wet. Occasional views of the lake were had. From the junction the way to the lookout is  pretty much just trail. We were happy to actually have the lookout at the summit since it started to rain a bit heavier now; nice and cozy in there!

We took the trail on the way down and it really started to pour at this point. I enjoyed it (maybe because it's the first substantial rain of the season?), some others would have preferred to take a bath at home instead.

Strava track including some more pictures as well: https://www.strava.com/activities/15819812487