Buckhorn Mountain - 6988' - Via marmot Pass Class 2
June 2009

Buckhorn Mountain - Photo by Gimpilator

This was a peak I did on summer solstice in 2009 with troop 709. I was thinking back to the previous summer in 2008 and how beautiful Marmot Pass was and I wanted to return to see if I could get up Buckhorn Mountain. So I organized a weekend outing with the troop to hike up to Marmot Pass and camp for the night. We all convoyed out to the trailhead and took the traditional rainy and wet starting photo and began up the Big Quilcene Trail. If I remember right I think there were about ten of us total. The rain actually let up shortly after we started and we were just hiking in the clouds. The wildflowers were in full force as we passed the Mystery camp and continued to the nice meadow just below the pass. Half of up set up camp here while the other half of the group stayed at Mystery Camp. Since it was foggy all afternoon we didn't see much so we just made some dinner and went to bed. I had hoped the next morning it would be clear and wouldn't you know when I woke up that morning I saw sunshine! I quickly got out of the tent with my camera and started running up the hill just to the north of Marmot Pass to see some views. The early morning lighting was fantastic on the Constance group and Mount Deception. To the south was Mount Buckhorn which I was planning to climb with some of the other scouts when they woke up. To the west the whole Puget lowlands were fogged in with low clouds. After I noticed the rest of the group getting ready I met them at Marmot Pass and a few of us began wandering up towards Buckhorn. It really didn't take too long for us to reach the top and we were greeted with incredible views. The route followed a small boot path the whole way up on loose dark colored rock. The banner above shows the view north to the Constance group from the summit. I had no idea the names of the peaks we saw but I knew someday I was going to head into the center of the Olympics for some real exploration. We started down back to Marmot Pass where the rest of the group who decided against going further was waiting. What a beautiful morning but soon the clouds were lifting and the views were going away so we all packed up and basically ran down the trail all at once!

Sunrise near Marmot Pass

Olympic Mountains from Buckhorn

The Olympic Mountains at sunrise