Dirty Harry's Museum

Several decades ago, Harry Gault made a reputation for himself among the local gyppo loggers by ingeniously building roads and logging many areas thought by others to be completely inaccessible. Harvey Manning bestowed the sobriquet ‘Dirty Harry’ on him in remembrance of his notorious tree felling exploits. Harry eventually departed the scene but left much of his old equipment to rust in the mountains around Snoqualmie Pass. And that was what I wanted to see. On a recent Friday, I solo hiked up to Dirty Harry’s Museum to view and photograph his fabled 1940’s era GMC logging truck, complete with boom. According to my Suunto watch the hike in to Dirty Harry’s Museum was 3.43 miles and 1,893 of elevation gain. After photographing the ‘museum’ I hiked back down to the main DHPT (Dirty Harry’s Peak Trail) and proceeded up to the summit of Dirty Harry’s Peak. Trip total 9.63 miles RT with a cumulative 3,665 feet of elevation gain (which includes a very short detour when I got off route early in the hike).

    The main trail changes character continuously from a wide soft needle strewn forest surface to carefully constructed rocky steps to gnarly narrow sections festooned with tree roots. It’s a mixed bag and mostly in the trees, all the way to the summit of the peak. The trail mixes an upward grind with flatter traverses and offers views only intermittently. While I hiked to the museum and the summit, I skipped Dirty Harry’s Balcony. Along the way, there are a couple of log benches that look out to views.

    The museum is well worth a visit. The trail is unmarked and unmaintained. About 2.9 miles up the trail there is a large flat boulder on the left with a small pile of rocks that indicates the location of the museum trail, on the right, the opposite side from the rocks. The trail proceeds up for about a half mile (according to my watch) and gains about 190 feet. It’s a voyage of discovery as the trail winds up through the trees and at times through a streambed. There are occasional cairns and some faded green surveyors’ tape on tree branches. The route finding is more challenging at the beginning and gets much easier as you approach the truck. Regarding Dirty Harry’s Peak, if you get excited about views of the Snoqualmie peaks and a distant Mt. Rainier, and love a good workout, then do it. I’m glad that I did it but don't plan to repeat.

    Starting at 7:00 am I saw only 5 hikers in the bottom section and had the museum all to myself and after greeting two hikers coming down from the peak, I had that trail and the summit completely to myself. Only on descending did I encounter more people, about 20 in the lower sections of the hike, most all putting on masks and observing friendly social distancing. After the heavily peopled conditions at Summerland last Friday, I needed more solitude, and I got it, however without the sensational vistas offered by Summerland. There are always tradeoffs. Note that this trail gets some traffic from rock climbers who tackle short routes along the trail and in the Far Side Climbing Area. Also, many people come to play in the river.

    I did carry my tripod and camera gear to capture three spherical panoramas at Dirty Harry’s Museum. Because, why not? The 360s are hosted at 360cities.net For best viewing click on the ‘Toggle Fullscreen’ icon in the panel in the upper right of the onscreen image. Then scroll to experience the immersive image.

Dirty Harry’s Museum, GMC Logger, Side View: https://www.360cities.net/image/dirty-harry-s-museum-gmc-logger-side-view-snoqualmie-area-wa-state

Dirty Harry’s Museum, GMC Logger, Front View: https://www.360cities.net/image/dirty-harry-s-museum-gmc-logger-front-view-snoqualmie-area-wa-state

Dirty Harry’s Museum, GMC Logger, Rear View: https://www.360cities.net/image/dirty-harry-s-museum-gmc-logger-rear-view-snoqualmie-area-wa-state