Gold Creek Trail

We drove out to Hyak on the east side of Snoqualmie Pass to hike
/snowshoe part way of the Gold Creek Trail, hiking around Gold Creek Pond and Heli Pond on the way. He hiked about 6 miles with 37 ft of elevation gain.
The road to Gold Creek Pond was still open but very icy, so we decided to park at the SnoPark area and walk up the road.
View of Gold Creek below Gold Creek Pond

Gold Creek Pond

views around Gold Creek Pond

Heli Pond













views around Heli Pond

a side trail on the way around Heli Pond

breif glimpse of Rampart Ridge to the east from Heli Pond

We continued up the Gold Creek Trail, we put on our snowshoes and would probably been ok without them today.
View of Gold Creek

There was only a couple inches of snow and the avalanche level was low today, so we were comfortable hiking through the avalanche area.

some icicles along the trail

Bridge across a creek













We stopped where the trail has access to Gold Creek Pond for our lunch break and turned around here.

returning through the avalanche area













brief glimpse of Kendall Peaks from along the trail

Stegosaurus Butte

We needed a short hike today, so we went out to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to hike up to Stegosaurus Butte (2 miles round trip with 1,000 ft gain) then continued along the Pratt River Connector Trail until it was time for us to return.
The trail begins by crossing the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River on this beautiful pedestrian bridge.

view downstream

view upstream

Across the bridge we turned to the right take the Pratt River Connector Trail and soon entered the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

1/4 mile from the bridge there is an unmarked trail on the left heading up Stegosaurus Butte.

Part way up the trail we had a brief view of Bessemer Mountain to the south.

This trail is steep and was very muddy and slippery in a few places.

Preacher Mountain and the Pulpit from Stegosaurus Butte

Garfield Mountain from Stegosaurus Butte

Lots of lovely greens on this trail!

We returned to the Pratt River Connector Trail and continued for about 1-1/2 miles. We soon reached the bridge over Rainy Creek.

Rainy Creek

At one spot along the trail there had been several large trees blown down (not on the trail) which opened the area for views. Bessemer Mountain to the south and

Garfield Mountain behind us.

There are several streams crossing the trail,

some very small,

and others a bit larger, all were easy to cross.

view of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River

large boulder with small cave at the base

glimpse of a distant peak

We turned around at a spot where the trail is close to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River
This was a very enjoyable morning hike on a cloudy day.

Deception Falls Nature Trail

 We stopped west of Stevens Pass at Deception Falls to hike to the falls and around the 1/2 mile nature trail loop.

 On the east side of the parking area is a short trail over Deception Creek to the falls which are located on the other side of the highway.

 view upstream from the bridge

view downstream from the bridge

 A short walk under the highway leads to a viewpoint of Deception Falls. There was a lot of water in the falls this morning.

 We walked around the nature trail loop counter clockwise.
View of Lower Deception Falls on the Tye River.

 Tye River below Lower Deception Falls.

And Tye River just down stream from the above photo.

 Lots of lovely trees and moss on this nature trail.

 Tye River cutting a channel out of the rocks further downstream.

 another view of the Tye River

  Large boulders and rock formations.

 This short trail has a lot to see!

 bridge over a smaller stream.



































small falls along the stream