Klickitat County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: October 11, 2009
Author: Greg Slayden
On this Sunday October Edward Earl, Eric Noel, and I visited the highpoint of
Klickitat County. We had all been in the area before but Eric and I had missed
an area that could be the actual high point. Edward brought his hose level to
see if we could determine which of two close points was actually higher.
The road from US 97 at Satus Pass is pretty terrible, with lots of huge rocks
but Eric's 4Runner handled it fine. However, we hit snow on the road and were
forced to park at 5400 feet, about 1.5 miles from the highpoint area. It was
sunny but pretty cold and the amount of snow was unusual for this elevation and
time of year.
There are four main areas to visit at Indian Rock (lat-longs in WGS84 decimal degrees):
1. "The Benchmark" (45.98897° N, 120.82336° W) marked with elevation 5823.
2. "The Outcrop" (45.98933° N, 20.82148° W) located 500 feet east-northeast of the Benchmark.
3. "The Pinnacle" (45.99392° N, 120.82329° W) marked with elevation 5819.
4. "Little Indian" (46.00393° N, 120.84133° W) marked with elevation 5822,
located about a mile northwest of the Pinnacle.
We hiked the snowy road and bushwhacked south to the Outcrop, the only area that
Eric and I had not yet visited, completing the county for us. Then we rigged up
Edward's hose level, needing to add 200 feet of extra tubing to his main 500-foot
spool of tubing. See http://www.cohp.org/hose_level.html
for information about this process.
The results were that the Outcrop is 6 feet higher than the Benchmark.
While standing on the highest rock, 0.5 feet above the 5823-foot benchmark, the water
level in the hose settled at our navels, about 3.5 feet above the ground.
The water level in the jug at the Outcrop was 2 feet lower than the highest rock there.
This result is likely accurate to +/- one foot or less. So the Outcrop
is at 5829 feet and is most likely the high point of Klickitat County.
We then bushwhacked over to the Pinnacle and scrambled up its west side.
This is the most impressive feature of the four, providing views over the trees to
Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood, and the Goat Rocks. There is a benchmark at
the top of the Pinnacle, likely the 5819T point on the topo map.
Some feel that the red square with a "+" in it on the map is the 5819 point,
which would likely make the Pinnacle considerably higher. Given the presence of
a benchmark on the Pinnacle, to me the red square has nothing to do with the
5819T elevation. I queried the NOAA-NGS datasheets site but found no records
for any of these benchmarks. They appear to be USGS and not online.
Anyone visiting the area should scramble up the Pinnacle even if it is not the HP,
due to it's superior views and fun ascent.
David Olson, Eric, and I visited "Little Indian" in 2008 and there is no
topography that suggests it reaches anywhere near 5829 feet. So we feel there
is no need to hike the two-mile roundtrip there from the other points in order
to claim this county.
It was interesting to see the hose level in action. Edward agreed that this
distance and brush between these two points was about the upper limit for this
process -- it was a bit time-consuming and hiking with an extra 2 gallons of
water and a large, unwieldy spool of tubing was difficult since we didn't bring
a large backpack. We had assumed a shorter hike that the snow made longer.