Granite Peak

Back up Granite Peak nearly two years after the first solo trip, this time with company for the climb — same steep, relentless switchbacks the whole way, but a much better experience sharing the effort and the views with someone.

Big banks of cloud rolled through most of the day, alternating between full sun and shade on the exposed upper switchbacks. Along the ridge near the summit, a rusted USGS benchmark disk turned up again — this one stamped 1949 — another small link back to the peak's fire-lookout history.

The summit delivered the same knockout views as before: Trinity Lake spread out directly below, its blue-green arms winding through the ridges, with the Trinity Alps' rugged high country rolling away in every direction under the shifting cloud cover. Plenty of photos at the top this time around, arms raised over the lake, before starting back down.

The way down turned up a bonus this visit — a hillside meadow in full wildflower bloom partway down the ridge, white and orange blooms covering the slope in the afternoon light. A tough climb, same as always, but an even better day for having someone to share the summit with.

This is Granite Peak in the Trinity Alps. I started early on the old logging road that opens the route, glad for the head start once the day heated up — the trail crosses into the Trinity Alps Wilderness a mile or so in, then settles into a long, steep set of switchbacks with no real break in the grade the rest of the way to the summit.

It's a great day hike option in a range where overnight backpacking is the far more common way people experience these mountains — Granite Peak is the only summit in the Trinity Alps with a maintained trail all the way to the top, which is part of why it's the most-climbed peak in the range, even though most of its neighbors see backpackers instead of day hikers. A rusted benchmark disk near the summit, stamped September 12, 1941, is a nice link back to the fire lookout that once stood up there.

The summit views lived up to everything I'd read about the range: Trinity Lake laid out directly below, Mount Shasta floating on the horizon to the north, and the rugged, reddish ridgeline of the Trinity Alps' Red Mountain country stretching away to the west. Very tough hike, but awesome — I saw no one else the entire day.

I was very happy I'd started early, because it sure got hot coming back down — the exposed switchbacks that felt reasonable in the cool morning air turned into a real slog under the full afternoon sun on the way out.