After securing our $35 "Washington Discovery Pass" we headed out toward Hamilton Mountain. What I like to do when I visit this place is to always take the wrong road and end up at the equestrian trail head. Then after looking at the map I head back down to highway 14, go a few more feet down the road and see the campground road directly across from Beacon Rock. For $35 a sign and functional toilets might be nice but I digress.
The trail immediately says "Good Morning" to your calf muscles as you quickly ascend a Doug fir forest to some nice views under the power lines. The trail levels out a bit and then descends as you visit a few waterfalls. My favorite is the "Pool of Winds." Careful in winter as both the railings and the rocks are covered in rime ice.
Speaking of ice, the trail then starts its steep uphill ascent. I love the sign that says would you like to try "difficult" or "more difficult."
Then we started seeing ice along the trail.
and then finally ON the trail.
Soon we were on the summit the views of which we enjoyed for approx 30 seconds as it was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing steadily at 20 to 30 MPH. Wind Chill must have been in the teens...it was brutal.
Took the loop down the backside (i.e. the "difficult") route and avoided the ice / saved my knees for another day. Hamilton is a great late fall / winter hike!
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