04-15-25
Tax
day coincided with a mid-60s and sunny afternoon. John was free for an
after work hike. I had seen a good assortment of wildflowers on Cougar
Mountain just two days earlier. We decided on Squak Mountain starting
at the Margaret's Way Trailhead. I hike on Squak Mountain half a dozen
or more times per year. I was last there on 11-09-24. Gary and I hiked
up from Sunrise Place on the east side of the mountain. About two weeks
later we were hit by a bomb cyclone storm that knocked down hundreds of
trees on all the Issaquah Alps peaks. The east side of Squak was
especially hard hit. Trip reports showed that most of the mountain was
logged out but our usual route including Phil's Creek and the Old Griz
Trail were still a mess. It may be a long time until they are reopened.
I was curious to see the situation on the rest of the mountain. We met
at the trailhead off Highway 900 at 1:10 pm. The lot was about half
full. For the first time this year I hiked the entire day with shorts
and short sleeves.
The trail starts by ascending through the old campground. I expected to see wildflowers from near the start. We did see spring beauty but that was it. The first viewpoint is only a few feet off the trail. The second viewpoint is farther off the main route. We saw some trillium and forget-me-nots. It the viewpoint we saw a blooming red currant bush. Once back on the trail, the yellow violet show began. We would continue to see these flowers on many parts of our route. We saw some groups going down but not a lot. The Margaret's Way trail was completely cleared out from the storm. That was not much of a surprise. It is heavily used. We had been seeing bleeding heart leaves for a while and finally started seeing the flowers. On a spring trip a few years ago, we stopped and just off the trail we saw some fawn lilies. They look a lot like avalanche lilies seen in a few high meadows in the mountains. I had not seen them on the west side before that.
John was pretty sure he remembered the spot and we had not problem finding it. The sun was shining on them and getting a good photo was hard but we gave it a shot. We hoped for better conditions on the way down. Near the top of Margaret's Way, we ran into an old work friend of John's. Soon after, we reached the top of the trail and took the trail over to Debbie's View. There were two people there when we arrived. There were some clouds around the middle of Mt. Rainier but the top was in the clear. This would be our only view south to Rainier. Our stay was short and we headed back the way we came. At the next junction we took the trail up and over the West Peak of Squak Mountain. There are two peaks that are about the same elevation. There are roots to walk on in places that are very slick when wet. They were completely dry this day. We dropped down from the second high point and quickly reached the road up the north side of Squak that goes to the old Bullitt Cabin site. Now it just has the old fireplace.
We were still debating our route. We choses to take the ridge trail over to Central Peak. The trail is in excellent shape. We arrived at Central Peak at 3:37 pm. At just over 2000', it is the highest point on Squak Mountain. The top has fenced in towers and is surrounded by trees. The old narrow view of downtown Seattle is now gone. We had a food and water break. John noticed the eagles first. There were a couple flying high above us. Then there were some flying by just below tree level. We could just see them. At one point there were about nine eagles soaring above and three more in or near close by trees. I was able to get one photos of a flying juvenile eagle. The eagle display was an unexpected bonus. He headed on at 3:56 pm. It only took a couple minutes to reach the top of the Old Griz Trail. That was one of the ones where the bomb cyclone knocked down a lot of trees. We could see some big ones right at the junction. It is signed as closes and unsafe. I wanted to go a short way to see how bad but just then we spotted an eagle in a tree right in front of us. This one was a white headed adult. We both managed to get decent photos though it pushed the optical zoom of our phone cameras.
We did not want to disturb the eagle so we headed on down. Our plan was to take the Central Peak Trail down the north side and then take the Chybinski Trail up to meet the top of Margaret's Way Trail. I hike this route a few times a year but almost always in the opposite direction. It was neat to do it counterclockwise. We made good time descending to the Bullitt Access Trail. We were on a grassy old logging road. The Bullitt trail is just a wide rocky old road. We dropped about 775' before reaching the Chybinski Trail. This trail is fairly new and was built at a very moderate grade. There are bridges over creeks and quite a few switchbacks as it climbs up the north side of Squak Mountain. We did not see many flowers going downhill but did see more blooming trillium while heading uphill. We reached the ridge top and Margaret's Way Trail at 4:53 pm. We did not know if or when the parking lot gate would be closed but were now comfortable that we would be down at least an hour before sunset.
The trip down Margaret's Way Trail was at a steady fast pace. We did stop for quite a few flower photos. The sun was now low enough to not blowout any photos. That was very helpful when we reached the fawn lilies. We took our time and ended up with a number of good shots each. We enjoyed the bleeding hearts, trillium, and yellow violets on the descent. Bleeding hearts are a color that is hard for cameras to focus one. I had half a dozen blurry shots for each one that turned out well. We had plenty of time and used it. We took a quick detour to the better viewpoint again. The far southern Olympic Mountains were very clear in the early afternoon. Now they were very hazy. We saw several people hiking up in our last mile down. Ironically, the road/trail down low through the old campground is about the steepest trail we hiked. The last half mile dragged on for me. We reached the cars at 6:27 pm. The lot was still almost half full.
This was an excellent after work hike. The drive was pretty short. It is not one we do in the winter headlamp hike season as the gate is closed before we would return. It is a great choice when sunset is almost 8:00 pm. The trail is for the most part not steep but over 10 miles we did gain 2500' of elevation. It was nice to hike in shorts and short sleeves again. The wildflower display was disappointing down low but above that it was pretty good. The rare fawn lilies are always a treat. The trip was only two days after a 14 mile hike but the moderate grade did not wear me out. I have enjoyed several good west side wildflower hikes the past couple weeks. Now I am eager to head east of the Cascades for desert wildflowers. That is a bit of a misnomer this early in the year as there is still plenty of great to the east. It was a really fun after work hike.
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Trips - 2025
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The trail starts by ascending through the old campground. I expected to see wildflowers from near the start. We did see spring beauty but that was it. The first viewpoint is only a few feet off the trail. The second viewpoint is farther off the main route. We saw some trillium and forget-me-nots. It the viewpoint we saw a blooming red currant bush. Once back on the trail, the yellow violet show began. We would continue to see these flowers on many parts of our route. We saw some groups going down but not a lot. The Margaret's Way trail was completely cleared out from the storm. That was not much of a surprise. It is heavily used. We had been seeing bleeding heart leaves for a while and finally started seeing the flowers. On a spring trip a few years ago, we stopped and just off the trail we saw some fawn lilies. They look a lot like avalanche lilies seen in a few high meadows in the mountains. I had not seen them on the west side before that.
John was pretty sure he remembered the spot and we had not problem finding it. The sun was shining on them and getting a good photo was hard but we gave it a shot. We hoped for better conditions on the way down. Near the top of Margaret's Way, we ran into an old work friend of John's. Soon after, we reached the top of the trail and took the trail over to Debbie's View. There were two people there when we arrived. There were some clouds around the middle of Mt. Rainier but the top was in the clear. This would be our only view south to Rainier. Our stay was short and we headed back the way we came. At the next junction we took the trail up and over the West Peak of Squak Mountain. There are two peaks that are about the same elevation. There are roots to walk on in places that are very slick when wet. They were completely dry this day. We dropped down from the second high point and quickly reached the road up the north side of Squak that goes to the old Bullitt Cabin site. Now it just has the old fireplace.
We were still debating our route. We choses to take the ridge trail over to Central Peak. The trail is in excellent shape. We arrived at Central Peak at 3:37 pm. At just over 2000', it is the highest point on Squak Mountain. The top has fenced in towers and is surrounded by trees. The old narrow view of downtown Seattle is now gone. We had a food and water break. John noticed the eagles first. There were a couple flying high above us. Then there were some flying by just below tree level. We could just see them. At one point there were about nine eagles soaring above and three more in or near close by trees. I was able to get one photos of a flying juvenile eagle. The eagle display was an unexpected bonus. He headed on at 3:56 pm. It only took a couple minutes to reach the top of the Old Griz Trail. That was one of the ones where the bomb cyclone knocked down a lot of trees. We could see some big ones right at the junction. It is signed as closes and unsafe. I wanted to go a short way to see how bad but just then we spotted an eagle in a tree right in front of us. This one was a white headed adult. We both managed to get decent photos though it pushed the optical zoom of our phone cameras.
We did not want to disturb the eagle so we headed on down. Our plan was to take the Central Peak Trail down the north side and then take the Chybinski Trail up to meet the top of Margaret's Way Trail. I hike this route a few times a year but almost always in the opposite direction. It was neat to do it counterclockwise. We made good time descending to the Bullitt Access Trail. We were on a grassy old logging road. The Bullitt trail is just a wide rocky old road. We dropped about 775' before reaching the Chybinski Trail. This trail is fairly new and was built at a very moderate grade. There are bridges over creeks and quite a few switchbacks as it climbs up the north side of Squak Mountain. We did not see many flowers going downhill but did see more blooming trillium while heading uphill. We reached the ridge top and Margaret's Way Trail at 4:53 pm. We did not know if or when the parking lot gate would be closed but were now comfortable that we would be down at least an hour before sunset.
The trip down Margaret's Way Trail was at a steady fast pace. We did stop for quite a few flower photos. The sun was now low enough to not blowout any photos. That was very helpful when we reached the fawn lilies. We took our time and ended up with a number of good shots each. We enjoyed the bleeding hearts, trillium, and yellow violets on the descent. Bleeding hearts are a color that is hard for cameras to focus one. I had half a dozen blurry shots for each one that turned out well. We had plenty of time and used it. We took a quick detour to the better viewpoint again. The far southern Olympic Mountains were very clear in the early afternoon. Now they were very hazy. We saw several people hiking up in our last mile down. Ironically, the road/trail down low through the old campground is about the steepest trail we hiked. The last half mile dragged on for me. We reached the cars at 6:27 pm. The lot was still almost half full.
This was an excellent after work hike. The drive was pretty short. It is not one we do in the winter headlamp hike season as the gate is closed before we would return. It is a great choice when sunset is almost 8:00 pm. The trail is for the most part not steep but over 10 miles we did gain 2500' of elevation. It was nice to hike in shorts and short sleeves again. The wildflower display was disappointing down low but above that it was pretty good. The rare fawn lilies are always a treat. The trip was only two days after a 14 mile hike but the moderate grade did not wear me out. I have enjoyed several good west side wildflower hikes the past couple weeks. Now I am eager to head east of the Cascades for desert wildflowers. That is a bit of a misnomer this early in the year as there is still plenty of great to the east. It was a really fun after work hike.
 John At The Start |
 Spring Beauty |
 First Trillium |
 Forget-Me-Nots |
 Red Currants |
 Olympic Mountains |
 Bleeding Hearts |
 Another Trillium |
 Many Yellow Violets |
 Four Yellow Violets |
 Fawn Lily |
 Sunny Fawn Lily |
 Mt. Rainier_Debbie's View |
 John At Work |
 West Peak |
 Bullitt Fireplace |
 Juvenile Bald Eagle |
 Old Griz Trail Closed |
 Adult Bald Eagle |
 John On Trail |
 Perfect Trillium |
 First Fawn Lily |
 Another Fawn Lily |
 Bleeding Hearts Again |
 Shadows On Leaves |
 More Bleeding Hearts |
 Last Bleeding Hearts |
 Viewpoint Bench |
 Pink Trillium |
 Sunlit Moss |
Trips - 2025
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