Distance: 8.5 mi.
Elevation Gain: 3250 ft.
I met Tasha at the Issaquah REI and we carpooled the rest of the way to the trailhead, which is tucked away up a gravel road marked Olallie State Park, on the right after you turn off I-90 at Exit 38. After dropping my Discover Pass on the dash, we started hiking at 10:30 AM and continued up the unmarked trailed until it reached another (gated) gravel road.
We turned right at the road and continued east until we found the trail to Mt Washington on the left, which is unmarked aside from a large-ish boulder and “WA” scratched into a tree. I wouldn’t normally rely on my Gaia GPS for a day trip, but it came in super handy for the poorly marked trails on this hike. From here the hike was obvious as long as you stayed on the most heavily used trail, although I noticed a sneaky mini loop on my Gaia GPS that we decided to take on the way up. To do the loop, you go right at the trail split by a swampy/marshy area onto the Olallie Trail, which takes you to an old road, and then you turn left at a tiny cairn up a faint unnamed trail that seems to go nowhere. This trail shortly switchbacks up the northeast ridge of Mount Washington for a steeper, jaunty trail along some scraggly ledges. If you want to try the loop, I recommend going up this way and down the standard route. The side trail is easy to follow but seems more often used by deer than humans.
After we met back up with the Mount Washington trail and turned right, it was a quick final climb up to the summit. We reached the summit at 1:15 PM. We had clear skies and brilliant views of Mount Rainier from the southern part of the summit ridge, and then could even see Mount Baker and Glacier Peak from the actual summit. We enjoyed a long lunch up top, letting the sun warm us, and then decided to turn around after a gray jay got mad at me and flew into my shoe!
We started down again at 2 PM. We took the standard route back down, which had a few rolly rocks requiring some careful footing. There were a handful of small ice patches that were easy to avoid. When the Mount Washington Trail met the Olallie Trail again (near the swamp) there was some signage to help avoid confusion. The short creek crossing at about 3,000 ft was rock hoppable and we were able to keep our feet dry all day. We reached the car at about 4 PM.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Gear Used:
- Day packs
- GPS
- Microspikes (not used)
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
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