Olympic Peninsula- Mt. Walker

Sunday morning a few buddies and I woke up to the sun at 9 o' clock and caught the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry and headed towards the Olympic Mountains. With no real plan as to where we were going, we eventually turned left onto Olympic Highway 101 and stumbled across a Visitor center. Here we found out that the Mt. Walker trailhead is just down the road and is the easternmost peak in the Olympic mountain range.

There is a road that leads nearly to the top of the mountain, but the gate is yet to be opened for the spring. I would imagine that when this gate is opened the peak will be much more crowded. We parked with a few other cars on the side of the highway, and headed up the closed road. Eventually on the right hand side there was a trailhead sign, indicating a 2 mile trail in one direction with a 2,000ft elevation gain, for a total elevation of 2,805ft. The trail is dirt single-track forming a series of huge switchbacks leading up the mountain. Given 1000ft elevation gain per mile it was quite a workout to get to the top, but the view was completely worth it. At the summit there were outhouses, a picnic table, and a bench situated with a breathtaking view eastward looking towards the Puget Sound. From this viewpoint we could see some of the bigger mountains in the Olympics, Mt. Baker, and the Puget Sound. On the way back down the grade was so steep it was almost easier to run down the mountain, but this is much harder on your knees and feet, and it's easy to lose control.

We saw people from senior citizens to small children hiking this mountain, but you do need some level of physical fitness to make it to the top. On our way up we ran into an older man that lost his group and was too tired to continue on so he turned around. I would suggest to always hike with at least one other person, there are cougars in these mountains.