Trip Report
Day Hike - Shriner Peak
A beautiful Fall hike on a cool, but sunny day with amazing views.
Ron Jones
- Sat, Sep 30, 2023
- Day Hike - Shriner Peak
- Shriner Peak
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Trail in great condition and easy to follow. It ascends pretty steadily up with a few spots of relief. A couple switchbacks are easy to miss, but also easy to figure out quickly. No water to be found.
Parking is limited but enough. Maybe two spots right at the trailhead, and 15 or so in a pullout to the north. A few cars parked alongside the road where it was wide enough.
For the second week in a row, a small herd of Elk were on the side of the road and dodging across just past Greenwater. Be careful.
We were a small, but complimentary group of four. We decided to carpool from Enumclaw and bring just one vehicle to the trailhead with limited parking.
We arrived about 7:50AM and were hiking by 8:05AM. Sunny but cool. We saw the new snow that had dropped during the week and opted to carry microspikes just in case. The snow line was higher than the summit, maybe 6,500-7,000', so we didn't use them.
Overall the trail is pretty consistent with gradient, with the occasional steep and flat section. Lots of Fall color.
We kept a conversational pace with only brief stops for layer adjustments, water and a snack. We made the summit in 2 hours 38 minutes, which meant we averaged about 1,260'/hour with stops.
It's supposed to be one of the lonelier hikes around, but that was not the case on this beautiful fall day! And because we started early, and the sun was at a lower angle, we never felt the exposure that people often complain about. In fact it was shaded and quite chilly on the hike up.
We spent an hour at the summit, eating lunch, exploring, taking photos and relaxing. We were maybe the 3rd group to the top, and it was a steady, but not overwhelming stream of hikers behind us. Our descent began at 11:50AM. It took us a bit over 2 hours to get back to the car at 2:02PM.
I logged 9.2 miles car to car, but we parked at the northern edge of the paved pull out which is about 0.2 mile from the trailhead.
