Dickerman Mountain trail, Sat 2009.07.25

Location of Mountain Loop Highway hiking area,
relative to Seattle, and Edmonds (where we live)

How to get to trailhead:
From Verlot Public Service Center (11 miles east of Granite Falls),
travel east on the Mountain Loop Highway 16.6 miles.
Trailhead is on the left (north) side of highway.

Trail distance: 4.3 miles one-way, 8.6 miles round-trip
Elevation at trailhead: 2000 feet
Elevation at Dickerman Mountain summit: 5723 feet (that's 3723 ft elev gain in 4.3 miles, folks)

First half of trail consists of seemingly endless series of switchbacks through fairly dense forest.

About halfway up, larger breaks appear in the trees and you see more of various nearby mountains.

Eventually, trees mostly drop out and trail goes through low shrubs (incl. lots of blueberries).

Thousands of beautiful wildflowers this time of year.

Finally, the summit.

The little girl in center of this photo was carried on her dad's back the entire way up.

360° panoramic view of other mountains in all directions.

View from where we ate our lunch.

Going down is a heckuva lot easier than going up!

Most welcome sight of the day: parking lot!