Three Way Peak
mountain in Washington (state), United States

Three Way Peak is a 6,796 feet (2,071 m) summit located on the eastern border of Mount Rainier National Park. It is also on the shared border of Pierce County and Yakima County in Washington state. Three Way Peak is situated 0.42 mi (0.68 km) north of Cupalo Rock on the crest of the Cascade Range. Its nearest higher peak is Crystal Mountain, 0.56 mi (0.90 km) to the northwest. Chinook Peak is 0.8 mile to the southwest. Precipitation runoff from Three Way Peak drains into tributaries of the White River and Naches River.
Climate
Three Way Peak is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America. Most weather fronts originating in the Pacific Ocean travel northeast toward the Cascade Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range (orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snow onto the Cascades. As a result, the west side of the Cascades experiences high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Three Way Peak” is mountain in Washington (state), United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Three, Peak and mountain, not as a finished interpretation.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56277907. Authority coordinates are 46.909, -121.496. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Three Way Peak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.