Silver Peak

We drove up to Windy Pass at the junction of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) on FR 9070 near Hyak to hike up to Silver Peak, 5.3 miles round trip with 1,900 ft of overall gain. The first 1.7 miles is a gentle hike heading south on the PCT with abour 500 ft of gain. It was chilly at the start of our hike, some frosty sitka mountain ash.

View of Mt Catherine from near the trailhead

After a short walk through a meadow, the PCT section is all in the woods

View of Tinkham Peak through the trees

1.7 miles from the trailhead there is a large cairn on the right marking the steep boot path up to Silver Peak, view of some distnat peaks through the trees

View of Silver Peak through the trees

After passing the side trail to Abiel Peak, the trail drops for a short distance and opens up with view of the false peak of Silver Peak, there is a steep climb up through a talus field

View of Tinkham Peak as we head up the Talus field

The trail goes around the east side of the false summit, first photo looking back south towards Abiel Peak and Mt Rainier, second photo Silver Peak, here the trail gains 600 ft in 0.3 miles

I stopped many times to take photos on this steep climb, some areas needing to use my hands: view towards Mt Catherine and Keechelus Lake; looking back to our trail to the south; zoom of Mt Rainier; the steep climb ahead of us to the summit

Views from the top of Silver Peak

On our way back down from Silver Peak, such a beautiful day!

We saw some wildflowers, lots of ripe huckleberries, fungi, and some fall color along the trail today: