Trip Report
Basic Snowshoe - Obstruction Point Road
Glorious 3-day / 2-night snowshoe trip at Hurricane Ridge. Nonstop views of Mount Olympus, stunning day trip to the summit of Eagle Point, and route-finding our way towards Obstruction Peak.
Colin Chapman
- Sat, Jan 17, 2026 — Mon, Jan 19, 2026
- Basic Snowshoe - Obstruction Point Road
- Obstruction Point Road
- Snowshoeing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Our extended weekend started at the hairpin turn right before the final approach to the Hurricane Ridge parking lot. We followed Obstruction Point Road for 3+ miles to our camp, and another 3+ miles on our day trip to Eagle Point and out towards Obstruction Peak.
Generally snow covered, many portions of the road had limited snow:
As in prior years when there has been lots of snow, the road tends to get tall, knife-edge snow drifts in places:
We saw evidence of 2023's Eagle Point fire:
And the summit of Eagle Point was bare:
Our trip started with a bunch of car shuffling, since overnight parking for the Hurricane Ridge area is 2.7 miles away from the trailhead. After gear and participants were at the trailhead, the trip leader parked his car at the overnight lot and then hitch-hiked from the overnight lot to the trailhead.
We then donned our heavy backpacks full of winter gear...
...and set off along Obstruction Point road:
We had a relatively modest 3.3 miles and 580' gain to our campsite near Waterhole.
And we then set up our tents (with deadman anchors, of course):
Tents up, we then dug out our camp kitchen:
Not yet ready to start dinner, we did a short snowshoe/hike to get some views. We started and finished our side trip with snowshoes, but we booted the final stretch near the summit.
We then had dinner...
And enjoyed a stunning sunset.
The next day was dedicated to exploring. Our hope was to summit Eagle Point and then continue southeast towards Obstruction Peak.
We had a big day ahead, so we were up early.
Mount Olympus was spectacular.
We then set out east, following Obstruction Point Road towards Eagle Point.
We eventually left Obstruction Point Road and headed uphill. Snowshoes were just training weight on our final push to the summit of Eagle Point.
Break time at the summit:
Spectacular views in every direction.
We then continued along the shoulder running SSE from the summit.
We weaved our way through trees to avoid cornices and ventured into the clear when we had more room.
Lots of cool runnels and snow shapes.
We continued east, sometimes in snow and sometimes not.
Mt Baker was in full view.
We saw a glide crack -- a precursor to a glide avalanche -- on a north-facing slope and submitted the observation to NWAC.
Our turnaround time arrived when we reached (47.92384, -123.40411).
We then followed Obstruction Point Road all the way back to camp and enjoyed a nice dinner and sunset.
Our final morning brought out smiles and some Top Chef cooking.
There is just something special about wintertime communal kitchens.
A successful extended weekend behind us, we made our way to the Hurricane Ridge parking lot.
Where the hitch-hiking and car-shuffling began again...
We all agreed it was an absolutely glorious weekend.