What a great hike today! We were first out of the trail head and first to the summit today – left the lot about 5:45 am and got to the summit about 8:30.
This is one of those hikes where you can see the goal from a long way off:
That lookout is the goal. The official trail apparently goes straight up that rocky ridge but we hiked up to the base of the ridge and found a trail that went down and then up around the less-drastic northern end of the summit area. No way up that isn’t tough, but there are degrees and we took the milder route.
And then, all of a sudden, Derek got to a switchback and saw that we were really close. A few minutes later, and Derek was up there:
The views up there, at just over 5,600 feet, are 360 with lakes and mountains dominating the view.
You won’t die of thirst, there were plenty of water sources today, periodically throughout the entire hike.
We shared the space with a family of Marmots. Here is the Grampy:
And beautiful flowers along most of the trail.
Views aplenty:
I do think, looking at the map, that that peak is Silver Peak – if so, we can get up there and in fact that hike has been discussed lately.
Here is the visualization:
http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/granite-mountain-7-20-2016/#.V4_fkJXlupo
According to my brand new Garmin Montana (might not have worked perfectly the first time) the hike was only 8 miles. I don’t believe it. Officially it is about 8.6 miles, and Derek’s Garmin was about 8.5. I think mine needs a little shakedown.
Anyway, totally fun hike today, I will definitely be going back to this one.
Wow–what beautiful scenery. Loved the marmot! Fran
Yeah, there are plenty of marmots up there and there are “agressive” chipmunks at the summit. They are used to being fed and are not shy about politely asking for a snack. Beautiful mountain.