Way up the dirt road beyond where everyone else parks there's a beautiful area. It's full of rocks and cliffs and solitude. I found it a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I've been back three more times.
On a misty day, I went up climber's left. Within moments, I was soaked. The footing was unsure. The higher I went, the sketchier it got. Meh. Not what I was looking for. But I was able to link up with the trail to climber's right for the walk down.
It was moody and beautiful, but the views were missing. I returned the next day with HOS and the dogs. We used the trail and climbed all the way up to Silver Peak. Kinda spooked some other folks that were up there via the main route.
A week later, we all returned on another perfect day. We again went up climber's left, but armed with the experience of what not to do we were able to find a reasonable route to the rock-filled basin. No more cliffs, just big rocks to hop until we got on the trail back down.
I now feel like I know the area well enough that I can confidently go back whenever I want to experience different aspects of the area. It'll be times like when the blueberries are in, when the first snow falls, and when the road opens and I can tromp up last season's snow. It's gonna be awesome.
📍On the lands of the Snoqualmie people.
