On way to Guye Peak

Trail Distance: 4 miles out and back
Elevation Gain: 1600 ft

Guye Peak peeking in the distance

With the continuing nice weather that started right after my hike to Snoqualmie mountain last weekend, I returned to the same Aipental trail head, this time with friend Saranga, with the plan for scaling Guye Peak. Just like the Snoqualmie mountain, the Guye Peak is also a very prominent geological formation that draws travelers' attention without fail at the Snoqualmie Pass. Compared to Snoqualmie Mountain, Guye Peak is located closer to the highway, a little less in elevation, yet with equally magnificent views all around. Both destinations share the trail for about a mile or so up until the fork at elevation of 4200 ft where a marker shows directions to the two legs of the trail.The trail description upto this point is available in my previous blog entry.

Gorgeous wild flowers

Almost immediately past the fork, the trail towards Guye Peak gets in and out of a rock scramble while climbing steeply. Soon afterwards, it climbs by the side of the mountain with southern exposure to nearby Danny Mountain. Then the trail enters a forested stretch where the slope becomes more manageable and reaches another fork with the other leg leading to Cave Ridge trail. Unlike the previous fork, however, there is no marker at this point. We continued towards Guye Peak and soon arrived at an plateauesque opening with a little pond and great views pf the Chair, Bryant and Tooth peaks beyond which lies the Melakwa Lake. We had a nice view of the Snoqualmie Mountain as well.

Tooth, Bryant and Chair peaks

The trail beyond the pond is rendered obscure by vigorous growth of the trees and abundant rockfalls. The gradient of the trail also became very severe all of a sudden through the next quarter of a mile or so. Unfortunately Saranga being a beginner hiker,  was not wearing proper hiking boots and we shared my one pair of tracking poles with one pole to each. The steep gradient seemed to be wearing him out as well. So out of safety concerns, we decided to call it quits at that point. It would have been just about 15 more minutes to the top from there, but we decided not to risk any injury and headed back.

Snoqualmie Mountain

On our way back, we met another hiker returning from the Cave Ridge Trail. I thought I found my next adventure for one of the following weekends.