Lake Mountain and Monument Peak
- Lucas Peterson
- Aug 2
- 5 min read
Updated: 21 hours ago
8/1/2025 - 8/3/2025
Lake and Monument were on the docket for the weekend. Both are remote peaks in the Pasayten Wilderness area that are hard to get to by any approach. Monument Peak is especially rugged and the most remote peak in the Lago group.
My adventure would start at the Monument Creek trail and take me all the way up and over Pistol Pass to a camp at Lake of the Woods. I had tentative aspirations to hike all the way in to Lake of the Woods on day 1, climb the peaks on day 2, and hike out on day 3, but the weather had other plans. Big thunderstorms were predicted to form over the Cascades in the afternoon, and I wasn’t able to start hiking until around 1 pm.
I could hear big claps of thunder every now and then as I drove past the Mazama store and the sky was rapidly turning gray as I pulled into the trailhead. I had given up on the dream of hiking all the way into Lake of the Woods, but I figured I’d just hike up the valley until at least the bridge across Eureka Creek to knock some mileage off my day 2.
The Monument Creek trail was easy going, and I made good progress up the valley. Light rain started when I was about a mile from the bridge, and my shorts started to soak through as the brush got increasingly wetter. The new Eureka creek bridge is sturdy and way above the creek now, so I crossed with no problem and hid under a tree for a bit as I contemplated my next moves. There were some nice campsites tucked into the trees right near the bridge, so it was an easy decision to safely tuck myself away from the thunderstorms for the night. It rained hard throughout the afternoon, so I just spent the whole evening hanging out in my tent and relaxing. One other party joined me amidst the deluge and set their tent up in another nice site nearby.
The next day dawned clear, and I was up and out of camp early. After a nice warmup hike the day before which was nearly flat for 3.5 miles, the trail got down to business climbing up to Pistol Pass. A series of switchbacks guided me up 1800 quick feet before I reached a bench on the ridge. Here I got my first good look at Monument Peak way down the Eureka Creek valley. The reprieve from the climb didn’t last for long, as I reached the steepest part of the climb, gaining another 1000 feet in rapid fashion. After I crested about 5800’ the ridge flattened out significantly. At about 6500’ the trail left the ridge-crest and began a long, undulating side-hill to Pistol Pass. This part of the trail was glorious - nearly flat and not a blowdown to be seen. I cruised until the final climb up to the pass, where the switchbacks forced me to shift back into low gear to surmount the last few hundred feet.
At Pistol Pass I was treated to a great view of Lake Mountain rising sharply above a sea of still-green larch trees. I was forced to give up about 700 feet of gain on the other side of the pass as I descended toward Lake of the Woods, eventually leaving the main trail to head to the lake on a spur trail for about a quarter mile.
Lake of the Woods was small but pretty and there were very few bugs out, which was a blessing. There was no shortage of camp sites available – it seems to be a very popular place to camp, despite the fact that I had to cover about 11 miles and gain over 5400’ to reach it.
I set up camp and couldn’t rest too much before heading out to Monument Peak. I set off cross country climbing straight up to the prominent ridge to the west of Lake of the Woods. Once on top of the ridge, I side hilled, following cairns in places until I could make a feasible descent into the basin between Lake and Monument. This was steep in places and brought me quickly down to the valley floor to a great water source at around 6200’. There was a great little waterfall, and I wouldn’t be surprised if water flows all year here.
Beyond the water source I continued side hilling for a bit at 6200’ until I found a spot that allowed me to gain Monument’s south ridge. This ridge isn’t difficult, but it does seem to stretch on and on. There was one false summit at around 8000’ that involved some light class 3 scrambling, but aside from that it was pretty much class 2 all the way to the summit area.
I approached the summit from almost due east, and the final bit was a sight to see. The north face of the summit was so steep that it seemed to be slightly overhanging. A class 3 move or two brought me up and I was treated to some awesome views of the rest of the Lago group. I really loved the color and texture of Blackcap Mountain from this angle.
On the descent I followed the same route exactly, crossing the creek at the waterfall and then making the semi-soul-crushing climb back up and over the ridge to Lake of the Woods. I expected to see the other party there that had joined me at camp the night before, but there was no tent to be seen, I guess they had a change of plans. A quick dinner was all I could muster with my remaining energy after a huge day.
Day 3 was another beauty, and I was moving as the sun was just hitting my objective for the day, Lake Mountain. Lake felt like a breeze compared to Monument because it was just right there above Lake of the Woods. I navigated some slightly loose gullies and ridges but nothing on Lake was over class 2 that I found. I topped out only 90 minutes after leaving camp to more great views. It was super satisfying looking over at Monument and thinking I had been standing on top of it hours ago.
The descent was uneventful, and I was packing up and leaving Lake of the Woods before I knew it. The climb up and over Pistol Pass was taken slowly, but then I was able to leg out the rest of the Monument Creek Trail in a reasonable fast pace. It was a relief to get back to my car, and I staggered into the Mazama store happy to have knocked off two more scenic Bulgers.
Final Stats: 32.22 miles / 12,136 feet of gain
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