Rattlesnake Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain - Grand Prospect, Rattlesnake Ledge & East Peak — Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026

For our annual New Year's Day hike, Ryan and I chose the Rattlesnake Ledge-to-Snoqualmie Point through hike. We dropped a car at the Snoqualmie Point lot and shuttled over to Rattlesnake, starting from there. Going this direction allows for a quicker gain of elevation, and we felt it would be less crowded if we got an early start. We passed a number of groups doing the traverse in the opposite direction. The snow began at about Rattlesnake Ledge and was present for most of the ridgeline, across East Peak and beyond Grand Prospect. Unlike last year, when freeze-thaw cycles combined to heavy trail traffic to create icy conditions, this year the snow was soft and we didn't end up using our microspikes.