Mount Walker

We drove over to Quilcene on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula to hike up to Mount Walker this morning. We were short on time, so our plan was to hike up to the North Viewpoint and back. From the "usual" winter closure spot this is 4.5 miles round trip with 2,000 ft of gain.
We found the road open with a sign about ongoing logging operations. Not knowing how long the gate would stay open, we opted to park below this gate off the side of the road. We discovered others parked at the trailhead parking lot and said there was a new locked gate just past the trailhead parking area.

At the beginning of the trail there was a light dusting of snow.

More snow as we gained elevation, but there was only a few inches up at the top, we did not bring snowshoes and did not use micro spikes today.

We saw lots of squirrel prints

Some nice forest views on this cloudy day.

lovely snowy lichen

ice drops on the ends of rhododendron leaves

icicles in the moss

Almost to the north viewpoint, just past those trees!

No views on this cloudy day at the viewpoint

Had to be careful on our lunch break, as the gray jays are very aggressive here.
















Nice view along the short road walk we did at the end of our hike.