Granite Mountain, WA

The hike to the peak of Granite Mountain is very popular. The trail is 4 miles in length with a total elevation gain of 3800 feet (0.72 miles). The first couple miles of the trail are through a forest with the rest of the trail open to views of the surrounding mountains. The trail is a constant uphill grade.

We started out at 7:30 AM to beat the rush of people who visit this trail every weekend. After 2 hours and 50 minutes of hiking we reached the peak. I believe we were the 5th and 6th persons to reach the peak that day. However, on the way back we passed dozens of people as they were hiking up to the peak. The return hike only took 1 hour and 25 minutes. (September 8th, 2002)

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This is one of the first views from the Granite Mountain trail after you leave the forest.		Although it cannot be seen this I-90 runs up the valley shown in this picture.
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This is a picture of the west end of the Snoqualmie Tunnel as seen from the trail up Granite Mountain.	In this picture you can see east bound I-90 and the Iron Horse Trail as it enters the Snoqualmie Tunnel	Mt Rainer as seen from the Granite Mountain trail.
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This is the first view we had of the peak of Granite Mountain.	Up until this picture the trail was on the south side of the mountain. This picture was taken on the north side. Be cause of the shade provided by the mountain there is still snow here on September 8th.
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Just right of center is Red Mountain.	Sitting just behind the ridge that runs from the lower right side of this picture is Guye Peak.	This picture shows Red Mountain and Guye Peak.
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Tuscohatchie Lake (large) and Crystal Lake as seen from the north side of Granite Mountain near the top.	Yes! We reached the top. Just 2 hours and 50 minutes after we started.	I made it too!
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A picture from the top looking north.	A picture from the top looking east.	A short Quick Time movie from the top of Granite Mountain. Sweeping 180 degrees west to east counter clockwise. (medium size 2.7MB).
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The same movie just a little smaller (small 800KB).	This is the trail just behind the peak of Granite Mountain looking north.	A close up of the peaks seen in the previous picture.

Click on a thumbnail above to see a larger version of the picture.

The pictures in this gallery were taken with a Sony DCR-PC100 1-mega pixel camera. Email me if you would like a higher resolution version of any of these pictures.