Dirty Harry's Balcony

This is a new hike to me, one I've never done before. I think that is going to be a focus for me this year; hikes I've never done before. Should be a good year I hope. Well anyway I drove down after work Friday night to the trail head and slept in the bed of my truck. I have modified my truck to be quite a comfy overnight sleeping arrangement for such occasions. Saturday morning I woke up and ate some breakfast and headed out. The trail head is located on a firefighter training facility road, the road has been closed to civilian vehicles, so you have to park outside of a gate and walk about a half mile on the road before you get to the actual trail.

Once on the trail, you start to climb quite steadily and consistently almost the entire way with little areas of relief. Even though you are climbing the whole way it isn't so steep that it becomes too difficult. The trail is a bit uneasy though because the trail is almost all rock. So be cautious about rolling an ankle or slipping if the rocks are wet. Normally I wear my trail running shoes if I am just doing an easy day hike with a small day pack and only use my boots when going on longer hikes with a heavier pack or if I'm doing some scrambling. On this day I wish I would have had my boots because of all the rock.

As you continue up the trail you will see another trail off chute from the main trail, that's the one you want to take. I knew beforehand there would be a intersection of trails and one would lead to the balcony and the other would lead to the peak. I took the wrong trail and after a few hundred meters I realized I chose the wrong one and had to backtrack. But it wasn't much and I quickly was going the right way. Eventually I made it to my destination: Dirty Harry's Balcony.

Dirty Harry's Balcony offers great views of surrounding peaks and Snoqualmie river below and also of I-90 if you're into watching vehicles from 1000 feet above. There isn't a ton of room for large groups to sit and relax on the balcony so if it is a crowded day in the summer it might be kind of a bummer if there are lots of people there with you. I was lucky there were only 2 other people there when I arrived. After soaking up some sun and some great views I grabbed a quick snack and headed back down. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day at about 70 degrees. Couldn't ask for a better day.

Region: Snoqualmie Region, Snoqualmie Pass
Distance:  5 miles
Elevation Gain:  1300 ft
Peak Elevation:  2600 ft
Difficulty: Moderate
Pass Requirement: Discover Pass

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.