Trip type: cross-country ski
Elevation gain: approx. 1,120 feet (approx 341 meters)
Car-to-car time: 3 hours 49 minutes
USGS Quad: Gold Bar
In Area: Highway 2 Corridor
Trip Report
I parked at the intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221. Road 6221 is gated, otherwise I would have been able to drive on this road quite a ways. I strapped my skis to my pack and headed up Road 6221.
The road passes through a lot of clear cut, which makes for good views of Mount Persis, Gunn Peak, Ten Four Mountain, and the Skykomish Valley. The road is clear all the way to the end, in summer it would probably be an easy mountain bike ride. In winter it turned out to be an easy ski on a thin snowpack.
The road ends on the NW side of Haystack Mountain, from here the route to the summit is a short scramble through salal and sparse young hemlocks. The the trees on the top of the logged-out summit are still small enough to leave a 360 degree view, and the view is surprisingly nice. Gunn Peak, Mount Baring, Mount Persis, Ten Four Mountain, Mount Pilchuck, and Mount Stickney were all visible.
References
- Washington Trails Association: Haystack Mountain
Travel Times
Car-to-car time: 3 hours 49 minutesAscending time: 2 hours 24 minutes
Descending time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- 1 hour 31 minutes driving there from Lower Queen Anne to Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221
- 1 hour 40 minutes ascending from Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221 (1,655') to end of road (2,600')
- 11 minutes ascending from end of road (2,600') to summit of Haystack Mountain (2,775')
- 33 minutes ascending from summit of Haystack Mountain (2,775') to summit of Haystack Mountain (2,765')
- 1 hour 17 minutes descending from summit of Haystack Mountain (2,765') to Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221 (1,585')
- 8 minutes descending from Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221 (1,585') to Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221
- 1 hour 19 minutes driving back from Intersection of Road 62 and Road 6221 to Lower Queen Anne
Visited
Ten Four Mountain from Haystack Mountain