
Trip Report
Day Hike - Mount Washington (Snoqualmie)
Three of us got an early start (7:40) for a lovely hike to the summit where gray jays looked on with great interest as we snacked. We were too early for a view, but we still had a lovely day.
- Fri, Jan 17, 2025
- Mount Washington (Snoqualmie)
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Based on a trip report from a week ago, we had a pretty good idea about what we'd face with snow conditions. There is NOT a lot of snow (snowshoes would be total overkill right now) but what there is can get a bit icy in spots. The recent 1/2 inch of dusting made going up totally fine, but on the way down, we chose to put on our microspikes. Most of the route is clear; we could see where trees have been sawed through. We did find two recent trees over the trail but very manageable.
The portapotty is open, though marked with graffiti. Only one other car was in the parking lot when we arrived, 9 when we returned around 12:40. We hung out with 3-5 gray jays on the north side of the summit then backtracked to the south side, waiting for a view we were too early to get. It cleared on our descent. The advantage to going so early is having a half day to do other things.
Driving at 6:30 a.m. on a Friday meant zero downtown traffic issues. Discover Pass is required. We saw 6 bird species on the day: robin, juncos, chickadee, varied thrush, golden-crowned kinglets, and several gray jays interested in rustling bags and which dive-bombed my friend. The weather was perfect, in the upper 30's, and on the way down we had blue skies.
Our trip was roughly 8.2 miles and 3200' gain-ish. I didn't set an AllTrails track as I don't find it accurate. Our round trip was 4:23 moving time with 30 minutes enjoying the summits. All told we saw 11 people and 3-4 dogs.
Great conversation, nice weather, and lovely to get out.