Trip type: scramble
Special gear: ice
Elevation gain: approx. 1,990 feet (approx 606 meters)
Round-trip distance: approx. 6 miles
Car-to-car time: 5 hours 28 minutes
USGS Quad: Mount Phelps
In Area: North Fork Snoqualmie Drainage
Aesthetic rating: 3/5
Trip Report
I parked on Road 57 and walked up road 5740. The logging road was clear enough to mountain bike until the first sharp right turn, afterwards the road was almost too choked with brush to even hike. Soon I noticed some old-growth forest on the ridge to the left, I cut over and found the woods much more pleasant. Around 3,100' I met the road again and followed it to its end in a small gulley full of logging debris, I then traversed NNW to the old growth forest on another ridge. The ridge was very steep and I found my ice axe very useful for self-belay in the dirt at times, but there were no technical difficulties. This led me to the far NW finger of Prospectors Ridge at 3,800'. I followed the ridge dodging a couple gendarmes until 4,000', at this point I faced 200 vertical feet of dense, young, snowy hemlock and decided I had found a good turn around point.
As I had lunch before heading back the clouds allowed me a couple glimpses of a short finger of the ridge that runs NE at 4,200', it could be an awesome vantage point but I couldn't tell if it would be a technical climb to reach it.
Comments
I was pleasantly surprised with the old parts of the forest in parts of this trip, there were some lovely old cedars.
Driving Directions
Take I-90 E from Seattle. Take exit 31 and set your odometer to zero at the stop sign. Go N on Bendigo Blvd. At 0.7 miles go right on N Bend Way. At 0.8 miles (two blocks) go left on Ballarat Ave N. At 1.3 miles Ballarat Ave N turns into 420 Ave SE, then at 1.5 miles the arterial turns into NE 12th St, then at 2 miles the arterial turns into 428 Ave SE, and finally at 3.8 miles the arterial turns into North Fork Snoqualmie Road SE. At 4.9 miles at a Y (with deadend signs for both forks) go to the left (uphill). At 5.3 miles North Fork Snoqualmie Road SE turns to gravel.At 20.8 miles go left at a large 3-way intersection, cross a bridge, then go right after a short distance. The trailhead, at the intersection of Road 57 and Road 5740, is 23 miles from I-90.
Maps
- Online map with route drawn on it: Prospectors Ridge route map
- Greentrails map: Mount Si
Travel Times
Car-to-car time: 5 hours 28 minutesDriving there time: 1 hour 36 minutes
- 14 minutes driving there from Lower Queen Anne to intersection of I-90 and I-405
- 1 hour 22 minutes driving there from intersection of I-90 and I-405 to trailhead
- 2 hours 36 minutes ascending from trailhead (1,995') to where I turned around
- 2 hours 20 minutes descending from where I turned around (3,930') to trailhead
Visited
The ridge NE of Sunday Lake taken from 3,000' on Prospect
