Best Fall color hike

Reviewed By: Hiking.Glory on Sunday, October 11, 2009 @ 11:55:43 AM

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Review: This was definitely the best Fall color hike I have done so far. The whol mountain sides were covered with shades of yellow and red. We started the hike on a cloudy day. The whole hike is constant uphill with little break. This late in the season, with all summer conditioning, it was not that difficult. The beginning is in forest which was nice and cool. Once we got out of the forest, it became quite cold and we had to put on hat and gloves too. Air temperature was definitely below freezing. Next time I would bring warmer gloves and jacket. All the hardwork is rewarded with sweeping views of fall colored slopes. There were also lot of berries at this point, but I am guessing they will be gone by next weekend. pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/hiking.glory/GraniteMtn#

best hike

Reviewed By: bob on Monday, March 2, 2009 @ 04:55:07 PM

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this is the best hike ever! the views are incredible and the moderation of the hike is just perfect, not too hard and too easy

the hike takes about 5 hrs and is worth every minute of it. the view is an incredible 360 paranoramic view that takes your breath away

there issnow mostly year round, in small to medium amounts of snow during the summer

Granite rocks!

Reviewed By: ddogg on Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 09:14:25 PM

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So it has been something like 25 years since I had been up Granite Mountain. What a gem that I had been missing out on! It's a real workout but worth every bit of the effort. We headed out this morning heading to make another slog up Mt Si, got to the parking lot and looked at each other and said, "do we really want to do this hike again?" It was foggy and damp in North Bend but it looked like the sky was opening up above the pass. So we turned around, got back on I-90, and headed up, looking for something a little less routine than Si. Well we sure found it. The weather was fantastic! Who would have thought November 30 would be a sunny and warm day in the Cascades? The views of Kaleetan, The Tooth (das toof!), Guye, Lundin and Kendal are fantastic. It was even clear enought that Rainier was a massive hulk to the south. The scramble route up had just a dusting of snow to make it interesting but the trail down the back side was a slushy mess. Round trip was just over 5 hours with a nice lunch on top among the horde of Thanksgiving weekend Turkey burners :)

Granite is a perfect October hike

Reviewed By: Ron Couden on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 01:43:42 PM

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I hike almost every weekend from August -October, and I felt Granite Mountain was a very rewarding hike.  Not as tough as McClellan Butte, but still a great workout.  This hike reminds me of the Pacific Crest Trail with all the wild flowers, and uncovered portions of the hike.  A clear Fall day is the perfect climate for this mountain, because it wasn't too hot, and there were no bugs.  It was cold at the top (as expected), and yes the ranger was cooking chocolate chip cookies.  Granite gives you the option to enjoy incredible views in every direction.  Plus, a great view of Mount Ranier!

Another review suggested that Mt. Si was a better hike.  I have done Si a dozen times, and strongly disagree.  Both trails have high traffic, unless you are hiking during the week.  Mt. Si is switchbacks the whole way up, Granite has some diversity to the trail.  Bugs are bad on both mountains on hot days.

Very strenuous hike

Reviewed By: Balaji on Thursday, August 21, 2008 @ 10:39:16 AM

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This is probably the most strenuous hike I have done. I have hiked Mt. Si and a few other mountains fairly easily, and was fooled into thinking that this will be as easy as Mt. Si as both of them have similiar elevation gain. The path is very rough, steep and your walk is slowed to less than 1 mph. So plan for > 8 hours for this hike. And avoid too hot and sunny days, as the heat can kill you - a good portion of the hike is directly under the sun with no tree cover. Carry atleast 2 bottles of water. This hike doesn't get a lot of crowd, so those who like privacy and intimacy with nature will love this. I started my hike at 2:30pm, and was pretty scared at dusk not finding anyone else in the whole damn mountain. You have plenty of great views throught the hike and can also see/hear I-90 for most part of the trip. As everyone else mentioned, bring a bug spray. If the heat and steepness doesn't kill you, the bugs will :).

Incredible hike

Reviewed By: Andy C on Monday, August 11, 2008 @ 06:14:50 PM

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Did the hike about a week ago and it was, as I've said, just incredible.  It was a bit more difficult than I had expected, partially my fault though seeing as I loaded my back down with about 35 pounds of water ballast, but it made for an amazing workout.  Ive only recently gotten back into hiking, and I had to turn back a few times and retrace my foot steps scrambling up to the top, but that just made the hike that much more fun!!  The trail was great and the views for most of the way up, after you pass the tree line were great, too bad the ranger wasn't up at the lookout that day though.  All in all the hike took me 5hrs and 45min with a good half hour lunch at the top.  Almost wussed out scrambling up to the top because I was by myself and my pack was a bit unwieldy, but my confidence was quickly restored when I spotted another hiker practically running up the boulder field.  Highly recommended, and my friend has told me that if you go early enough on the right day there will be a ranger up in the lookout with cookies.....

May 27, 2008 too soon to tackle

Reviewed By: MPR on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 @ 09:31:32 AM

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This was my first attempt and questioned if it would be too early due to the heavy snow fall this year.  It didn't take long to deteched the affects of the melting snow. Trails were very wet, mini creeks everywhere, downd trees(caused by slides) etc.  Snow was very heavy at 3,000 ft, making it very hard if not impossible to follow the summer trail.  Finally optd to attempt the winter snow route but not prepared enough for the climb conditions.  Headed back down at the tree line approx. 3/4 way up.  Broken clouds, mild temperature. All in all had a great workout and look forward to trying again with the right equipment or during the summer.

OVER RATED

Reviewed By: Glen on Thursday, September 13, 2007 @ 06:36:22 PM

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I don't think that there is anything too spectacular about this hike.  It seems that some people appreciate the fact that this mountain has views begining from the half way point.  I on the other hand prefer to have the view unvailed to me as close as possible to the summit.  The reason; I believe that you become desensatized to the view at the top if you are continously observing the views from the half way point on.  Also, until you reach the top 5% of this mountain your view includes (and you can hear) I-90.  I'm also surprised that no one commented about the flies.  I think that they were the worst at the top.  Bring bug spray.  The reason I marked this average instead of poor is because the view from the top is very nice and the last 1/3 of the hike is pretty much through a field of wild blueberries.  I'm not sure what to recommend as I'm new to the area, but if I could take a day off during the week when Mt. Si is not so busy,  I  would pick Si over Granite.

Grinding up Granite

Reviewed By: CJ on Thursday, August 16, 2007 @ 09:24:59 AM

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July 30, 2007

I decided it was time to get my 8 year old boy, Alex, started on some real hikes.  Last summer, we did Rattlesnake Ridge, Little Mt. Si, and Twin Falls.  I was planning something in Commonwealth Basin, but the friendly ranger at North Bend said, "Granite Mountain is a short, popular hike."  It didn't really sink in that it ascends 3800 feet in four miles.  Anyway, it is not a very pretty hike for the first half as it steadily rises through the woods.  After about two miles, we met a woman ranger coming down from the lookout tower.  She couldn't believe the other ranger's recommendation for us.  She gave my gasping son a motherly look and said, "Well, you go as far as you can."  That was all he needed to hear and determined right there to see the top.  After the trail breaks out above the trees, it enters beautiful, rock-strewn alpine meadow with lots of wildflowers.  Unfortunately, you can see and hear I-90 for much of this hike.  Also, we were cold in our jackets until almost the summit (July 30th!). There is a little plateau spot with flat rocks like giant picnic tables next to two almost dried out tarns.  From there, the tower looks "right there", but it is decieving.  The trail splits up, so we headed up the ridge to the left.  Unfortunately, that goes up a tough rock field that was a bit much for him to navigate.  We saw the real trail 100 feet below us (should have stayed to the right at the tarns).  But we did find a small patch of snow for a quick snowball fight.  After descending to the trail after wasting almost an hour, we did the last painful 20 minute push up to the summit.  It had finally cleared up, and the views of the Commonwealth Basin peaks, Mt. Thompson (?), and Mt. Rainer were stunning.  To my surprise, I had a very strong cell signal to call my wife with the report.  After lunch, we headed back down and passed several very sweaty, tired adults coming up ("He made it?!?!?!).  It took us five hours up (many rests and pep-talks) and 2.5 to get down.  Not a really fun hike, but a great summit and sense of victory.  Final note, we wore lots of DEET bug spray and still came back covered with bites.

Granite Mountain Flowers Amazing

Reviewed By: clbackus on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 @ 08:59:22 PM

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Very pleasurable hike on a sunny Friday afternoon in early July (7-6-07).  Awesome trail, very easy to follow and makes a measured but steady climb up.  My friend and I went and we got some really good views of Rainier once we got out into the open about 1/2 way to 2/3 up.  Very clear day you can see all the surrounding mountains from the East back around to the south on the hike up.  Unfortunately we didn't arrive at the snowy section goin up toward the lookout until just about the time we couldn't have gone all the way up and gotten back before dark, so we had to turn back.  Definitely want to do this again sometime when we can make our way up the huge boulders or around the side of the ridge to the East and get up into that tower.  I can only imagine what kind of magnificient views could be had from a 360deg panorama from there.

Fabulous training hike

Reviewed By: Julie H on Sunday, July 1, 2007 @ 11:07:31 AM

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To train for Mt. Adams, we hiked Granite Mountain with large, heavy packs on our backs and rented plastic boots on our feet. There was still quite a bit of snow next to the bouldering route towards the summit so we chose to tackle the snow. Trekking poles were a must and crampons would have been helpful. The weather was perfect and a wonderful Park Service volunteer was baking chocolate chip cookies in the lookout tower - what a treat! No bugs and a nice (but a bit cool) breeze at the top.

With 4,000' of vertical spread over 4 miles, this is a great training hike. On a clear day like yesterday, the views are unbelievable. Much better hike than Mt. Si.

Very good trail condition

Reviewed By: VictorM on Saturday, September 23, 2006 @ 09:51:57 PM

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Hard but worth it !!

Reviewed By: Siva on Sunday, June 25, 2006 @ 04:11:58 PM

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Wonderful scenic hike. Don't forget to take the "Recreation Pass" we wasted 30 minutes :-( . And also Trekking Pole is very useful for this hike as the elevation gain is too much...

Windblown

Reviewed By: Jason on Sunday, February 12, 2006 @ 12:34:24 PM

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Review: We climbed on 2/11/06. My bother in law and I are somewhat novice alpine climbers. We decided to do Granite Mountian. I'd heard and read a lot of good things about the climb. We decided to hit the trail at 0600 hrs. We assumed there would be a lot of soft snow so we brought snow shoes. We got to the trailhead at 0600. I forgot to buy a day pass so we had to go back to North Bend. We finally hit the trail at about 0730 hrs. It started out nice and easy for about the first 30 minutes or so. We had planned out taking the trail that goes east and then comes back up to the the top. We hit the avalanche shute and all the footprints started heading straight up. SO we followed the footsteps. Not bad until we got to just below the SW ridge. We saw teo other climbers who had stopped to put on crampons. I had mine, but my brother in law did not. I decided to even the odds and keep mine off. So we get out onto the ridge and the wind kicks up and the temp dropped about 15 degrees. Talk about cold and windy. I was using trekking poles and my mountaineering boots. It would have been much easier with my crampons and ice ax...and safer too. The snow was hard and icy and if either my brother in law or I had slipped it would have been a bad day on the mountain. My brother in law had not brought his mountaineering boots and he thought we would be in snowshoes the entire time. He was having a harder time that me. I also found out that my gloves were not up to par because my hands were freezing. We got up to the top at about 1030. Great views, but my camera batteries went dead. Still windy as hell at the top. After about a half an hour we got our gear together and headed down the west ridge which took us down in a saddle on the west and then we headed south until we hooked back up to the main trail. Got back to the car at about 1300 hrs. Great hike and I would love to do it again...with better gloves this time.

Still good

Reviewed By: Victor M. on Sunday, October 30, 2005 @ 08:17:04 PM

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Even today, Oct 30 - still very nice hike. About 5 inches of snow on the very top of the mount, covers most of the boulders and big stones on the way. A bit slippery but anyone with high hiking shoes and hiking poles can easily make it. My wife with kids decided to turn back from the very last ascent - they had a light hiking shoes which became wet from the very beginning of the snow area. We were lucky to get a good, dry and pretty sunny day (despite a forecast of 65% rain...)  Highly recommend!