Gold Creek Valley - July 7th
8 miles (+ 1.5-2 miles round trip of dirt road)Negligable
Snoqualmie Pass; I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Very Easy
A little over a year ago Chris, Katie and I tried to hike Gold Creek Valley. We were looking for a good early season hike and it had been recommended. I can’t remember who or what recommended it. It was probably something along the lines of “This hike opens in May” and we thought to ourselves sweet! It’s May 18th (guessing) it’s got to be melted out! We totally don’t need to look at trip reports o WTA or anything...
We drove out there and didn’t even get to the actual trail before things turned slushy. Apparently you used to be able to drive up to the trailhead, now you need to park at Gold Creek Pond and walk about ¾ of a mile to the trailhead. Not a big deal, and the only reason I bring it up is this: there were people getting ready to go cross country skiing on our way from the pond to the trailhead. That should give you a pretty good idea of how snow it was.
I hear you thinking, surely they turned back, they’re not total morons who would try to hike an unfamiliar trail in two feet of snow when one of them was only wearing tennis shoes and jeans. Oh how wrong you are imaginary conversationalist. We are absolutely that dumb. My guess is we went about 2 miles, maybe a little bit less. We lost the trail a couple of times, but what finally made us turn around was we all fell into tree wells up to our hips.
This time was waaaaay better.
We drove out there and didn’t even get to the actual trail before things turned slushy. Apparently you used to be able to drive up to the trailhead, now you need to park at Gold Creek Pond and walk about ¾ of a mile to the trailhead. Not a big deal, and the only reason I bring it up is this: there were people getting ready to go cross country skiing on our way from the pond to the trailhead. That should give you a pretty good idea of how snow it was.
I hear you thinking, surely they turned back, they’re not total morons who would try to hike an unfamiliar trail in two feet of snow when one of them was only wearing tennis shoes and jeans. Oh how wrong you are imaginary conversationalist. We are absolutely that dumb. My guess is we went about 2 miles, maybe a little bit less. We lost the trail a couple of times, but what finally made us turn around was we all fell into tree wells up to our hips.
This time was waaaaay better.
There was no snow. It was warm but not outright hot, the trail wasn’t crowded or muddy or anything! It was pretty much perfect. It’s an incredibly easy hike. We ended up turning around where you need to ford Gold Creek to continue on to Mt. Alaska, we’d read reports that things got a bit overgrown and nasty after that and we were looking for an easy recovery hike because of how hard we’d pushed on the the 4th. Not to mention that Chris’ ankle was only just starting to feel better.
It was a gorgeous day. There were tons of wildflowers, including my personal favorite (aside from daffodils or narcissus but they're not indigenous): wild tiger lillies (right). About ¾ of the way through the hike it opened up into the valley where there had obviously been an avalanche or mudslide or something. I find that kind of destruction oddly beautiful. It was one of the most enjoyable, mellow hikes I’ve had so far this season, I highly recommend it if you’re in need of an easy day. Start earlyish though (we started about 10:30), on our way back we passed twice the amount of people going out towards the trail than we’d seen on it all day.
WTA Link for Gold Creek Pond (no entry for the trail itself)
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