Mount Zion via Deadfall TH

Drove out to the Deadfall Trailhead near Quilcene to hike up Mount Zion in Olympic National Forest. This was 7.6 miles round trip with an overall gain of 2,300 ft. This hike is mainly in with forest with limited views. I only saw 3 other hikers today, and 2 of those hiked up to Mount Zion via the Mt Zion Trail from the opposite side.

The hike starts out steep gaining about 950 ft in less than a mile.

The trail then looses about 400 ft of elevation on the way to join the Snow Creek Trail to the top of Mount Zion.

The trail then steeply climb up 1,400 ft in a about 1.4 miles. There were a couple of places where small streams crossed the trail.

I saw a few trillium in bloom along the trail.

Patchy snow began about 3,700 ft until shortly before the summit.

There were two short spur trails about 3 miles from the trailhead. View towards Mt Townsend and other Olympic Peaks from the first spur trail.

View towards Mt Townsend and other Olympic Peaks from the second spur trail.

The trees have grown up on the top of Mount Zion obstructing the views since the days of a fire lookout up here.

From the summit a short 0.25 mile spur trail goes down towards this rock outcropping.

After a short scramble, I found a view spot, here looking southwest towards  Mt Townsend and other Olympic Peaks.

And a partial view to the northeast and Hood Canal.

I decided to not continue along the rocky outcropping as it seemed to be both narrow and heavily treed.

I found one glacier lily in bloom along the side of the rock outcropping.

There are rhododendrons along the upper part of the trail. It looks to be several weeks before they start to bloom.

A lovely large boulder covered in moss along the trail.