Gobblers Knob

It was a great hike, although bug infested it was still worth the it. My friend and I hiked in from just beyond the summit of the copper creek forestry road, much more scenic and simple hike for the less experience hikers. The trail begins with a nice smooth beautiful hike down to lake george where you have many options for camping, then it begins to climb drastically towards gobbler's knob with switchbacks and some not so great trail sections that can be quite dangerous for the un-experienced. The lookout is a fantastic sight with views that you can only dream of, just dont forget to bring bug spray for the hike up!

My first option of the day was a hike to Indian Henry's.  I took the Westside Road to its dead end parking area and my plan was to take a trail to IH that was marked on the park's map. It was a trail that runs parallel and a bit South of the South Puyallup Trail. After getting to the abandoned Tahoma picnic area, I figured I passed the trail head. I found out later from other hikers thar the trail I wanted is unmaintained and the marker for this trailhead was a barrel for "blue bags".

So, onto plan B - Gobbler's Knob lookout. I think there is about 3 miles of somewhat boring Westside Road to get to the trailhead from the parking area. I noticed that there was a bike rack if you want to shave a ton of time on your way back via moutain bike. Also, the Tahoma Marine Memorial (the 1946 plane crash) is just a couple of yards away from the Lake George/Gobbler's Knob trailhead. On the Westside Road, I was averaging one hiker going the other way every 1/2 mile. Once I started onto Lake George/Gobbler's Knob trail, I only saw one hiker for the rest of the day. This on a Monday in early August. The lone hiker I passed had a big white dog with him (isn't that a no-no?).  Anyway, the trail to Lake George is about near perfect and well maintained.  Lake George is an awsome place to camp, but my mission was Gob's Knob. I think it's about 1.6 miles to the lookout. The trail was nice up to a point, but got a bit ragged around the edges in places. There were dozens of soul sucking switchbacks to the top. Probably not much of a problem for the pros, but for average people, it might as well be a sweaty, bug infested gauntlet. Once you first see the lookout high above, you think your journey is nearly over. Well no, more switchbacks!

When I finally arrived, I was treated to a newly restored lookout and awsome views. Perfect for a picnic. The moutain looked great and off in the distance was Mt. St. Helens. Just enough wind to keep the mosquitoes away and for some reason the big flys ignored me on the deck. I was going to give this trip a 3 star, but the views at the top adds another star.

Just got back this evening from George Lake.  While at the lake, my dad and I climbed up to the observation point on Gobblers Knob.  It was a fairly steep but short trail from the lake (about 1.5 miles).  The view of Rainier was pretty nice when the clouds were not in the way.  Well worth the climb, because it is the only area where trees don't block the view of the mountain and glaciers.  The hike from the parking lot to the lake is 4.5 miles of pretty UNscenic road (which has been washed out and closed to vehicles). It is worth it though!

It is soo hard to walk up to the top of it

My boyfriend and best friend and I hiked this as a day hike. I wish we had started earlier because once we reached the lookout we didn't want to leave. At the lookout-It was cloudy for the first 15 minutes or so and cleared breifly showing a picturesque view of Mount Rainier. We didn't know what to expect so it was an awesome suprise. We are hiking back for a weekend long campout (late July) and hope to have an even better view in better weather. We went on a overcast day in late May. The hike was not too difficult although it has difficult spots such as the last .5 mile to the lookout, switchbacks and some thin trails with drop offs. Definately worth it!

I hiked up to Gobbler’s Knob back in November of 2001. Pretty nice hike and we had nice weather. The only memorable thing that happened was: While we were sitting up on the rocks sunning ourselves, a guy in his mid-thirties or so came up with a couple ten or twelve year old kids. None of them had any back packs at all, so I figure of the ten essentials they had, oh I don’t know, maybe none? I think one of the kids had a sweater draped over his shoulders, otherwise they all just had flannel shirts on. The adult had a pair of boots, but both kids were in tennis shoes. Although it was a nice day out, it was a bit windy and chilly at the summit, and it was November which means at least the possibility of some nasty weather. The last half-mile or so up to the lookout was through snow, so the tennis shoes must have been a bit iffy. Anyway, they get up there, notice the lookout building, and the kid asks me, “Do you know if there’s a drinking fountain here?” I replied, “Uh, no I don’t think there’s a drinking fountain up here.” They stayed about 30 seconds and turned around and headed back down.

We camped on the eastern shore of Goat Lake on August 13, 20004, and hiked up to Gobbler's Knob. The hike in was nice, but there is a big downed tree blocking the trail about a quarter mile from Lake Christine. Had to take off the packs to go under. Saw very few people. The view from the knob was awesome! St Helens was visible and Rainier looked to be way too close. On the way out we were just beyond Lake Christine and saw a huge black bear. He didn't stick around long!! Not many bugs and the fish at Goat Lake weren't very hungry. Great trip!!