Category: Day Hikes (Page 8 of 13)

I’ve never been up to Spray Park on the NW side of Rainier during full-on wildflower season. I decided it was high time I corrected that little problem. I was on the trail by 7 a.m. on a week day and had the trail to myself the entire way up to the top of Spray Park. Wildflowers were incredible! And a bonus was that mosquitoes weren’t unbearable like they sometimes are. I spent several hours wandering around the many levels of Spray Mark taking photos and just relaxing and enjoying the amazing views of Rainier and more wildflowers than seem possible.

On the way back down I met 2 wonderful young men who were hiking the Wonderland Trail and we sat and talked for quite a while. It’s so fun to see our beautiful Mountain through other people’s eyes, makes me realize that I can’t ever take this amazing park in my back yard for granted.

Since Summit Lake is one of the best areas to see fields of Erythronium (avalanche lily) in the Rainier area, we decided to check it out yesterday. A couple of little birds told us the flowers were in full bloom, and they were so right!  DH, Elizabeth, and I headed out early in the truck to get up the rather nasty forest service road before it was crowded. The hike up to the lake is a nice forest-y climb, but up at the lake itself is absolutely stellar!

It started out cloudy and breezy, and we thought we wouldn’t get a good view of Rainer today, that the wildflowers would be worth it though. It was a bonus day, because while we were up on the ridge the clouds blew away and Rainier was spectacular, as usual.

There was so much in bloom, it was sensory overload. I’ve never hiked the loop up the ridge that goes all the way around the lake, and that’s where the flowers were. Erythronium by the acre, paintbrush, penstemon, lupine, sedum, aster, the list goes on and on.  It wasn’t too crowded, and there were NO mosquitoes out yet.  An absolutely stellar day 🙂

A lot of photos, because this is one of those places that Mother Nature loves to paint beautiful scenes.

Let’s talk surgery first, then we’ll get into the Skookum Flats hike.  Apparently my name should have been Humpty Dumpty, because I keep falling apart.  I found out less than a month ago that I had grade 4 (a.k.a. bone-on-bone) arthritis of my right shoulder AC joint, so last Tuesday my most-wonderful orthopedic surgeon put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  I had an open distal clavicle excision and acromioplasty. Apparently other body parts were jealous that my knees were getting all the attention, and they decided to very vocally express themselves.  Surgery is done, healing is going freakishly quick, sutures are out, and I feel wonderful now…

So, on to Skookum Flats trail.  I needed a not-so-steep trail since I can’t yet use hiking poles with my right shoulder. Skookum Flats was a perfect post-op hike, mostly flat, beautiful deep forest, and of course I hit my favorite wildflowers at their peak.  Everywhere I looked there were trillium, calypso orchids, mahonia, skunk cabbage in full bloom. I hiked a wonderful, flat 6 miles on a gorgeous sunny day, and only saw 3 other people the whole time.  Skookum Falls still had a decent amount of water, which was nice considering how unseasonably warm it is and our lack of snow pack this winter.

Nature therapy is the best rehab out there, I got to check another trail off my list, and I got to see some of my favorite native wildflowers.

I spent a wonderful day going on a solo hike out at Mt. St. Helens. Started at the Hummocks TH since the road is still closed up to JRO until next month. I hiked through the Hummocks area to Boundary Trail 1 and then up the ridge to Loowit Lookout. Gorgeous day!  I could see JRO, but my view was so perfect at Loowit that I didn’t feel the need to go another 3/4 mile.  Sunshine, quiet solitude, a picnic lunch looking out over a gorgeous volcano – THIS is why I love to solo hike.  I always feel so recharged after a day like today 🙂

I’ve never been up to Mowich Lake in the NW corner of Mt. Rainier Park in wintertime. It’s only been summertime hiking for the amazing wildflowers and views from Tolmie, along with blood-sucking mosquitoes and far too many people crowding the trails. With the light snowpack this year, I finally decided it was time 🙂

The gate is still closed at Paul Peak trailhead. I biked about a mile up the road and then locked up my bike. After 2.5 road miles, the Grindstone Trail cuts off the last two huge road switchbacks and is a great way to get up to Mowich Lake. It’s an “unmaintained” trail but still in pretty decent condition, considering the time of year. Quite a bit of mud, but nothing that a good pair of hiking boots can’t handle.

The Grindstone Trail comes out on the road about 1/4 mile before the Mowich Lake parking lot, short-cutting 1.5 road miles. On the day I went, I had the entire place to myself and it was heavenly!!  A lot of sunshine, a picnic lunch at the edge of the frozen lake, silence that was almost deafening, huge views, and not a single other person. Solo days like this do wonders to recharge my batteries and I always head home feeling so calm and peaceful afterward 🙂

I haven’t been on a bike in at least a century, but last weekend was so nice that S & S and I decided to break out the bikes and head up the Carbon River Road on the NW corner of Mt. Rainier National Park. The road is in good condition for bikes, considering how may times it’s been washed out.  It’s a gorgeous 3.5 miles through old growth rainforest to the Ranger Falls/Green Lake trailhead, where we locked up the bikes and headed out on foot. Ranger Falls was much fuller than last year, since it had recently rained. After photos, we headed further up to Green Lake where we spent an hour sitting on logs in the sun, drinking coffee and tea and having a picnic at the lake, and skipping stones on the frozen lake (rather unsuccessfully).

Back down to the bikes, and since the road has a slight grade to it, the ride from the trailhead back the car was a wonderful glide back through the rainforest.  If you like huge trees, moss, draping ferns, and river views, this is a must trail!

We spent a wonderful week at South Lake Tahoe the first week of February. Unfortunately, the snow levels are dismal and our snowshoes never made it out of the car. But, we did get to do two wonderful hikes that were virtually deserted so we had the trail to ourselves.

We first went to Emerald Bay and hiked out past Eagle Falls to Eagle Lake. We have a lovely picnic lunch on the shore while soaking up the sun and making some much-needed vitamin D. The lake was completely frozen over, and it was beautiful to have the whole area to ourselves.

The next day we headed out to Echo Lakes and hiked several miles of the PCT along the shoreline. I had flashbacks of Yosemite with the huge pines and junipers, and granite everywhere. Again, the lakes were frozen over and beautiful, and we didn’t see another person the whole time we were out there. At one point we were serenaded by a coyote and then watched it run across frozen Upper Echo Lake, wish I knew what it was talking about.

For a final fun side trip, we took the Heavenly Gondola up to the observation deck and the Heavenly ski area. What a fun ride (and expensive, but worth it)!!!  Many of the ski runs were closed due to lack of snow, but there were still a lot of people up top skiing on man-made snow. Again, we spent time walking around in the sunshine soaking it all in.

I’d like to go back sometime, it would sure be fun to rent a cabin on Echo Lake and take our kayaks. I think a week of summertime out here would be wonderful!

Each time I hiked in October, I kept thinking that would be the last good hiking day of the season. And every time, I was wrong. On Oct, 19th Sharon, Steve, Fran, and I headed to Mowich Lake to hike up to Spray Park. I’d only been to the lower part of Spray Park before to see the wildflowers, and was driven out by ravenous, blood-sucking, thirsty, evil, vampire mosquitoes who seem to love me more than any other human on the planet.  This time, there were no mosquitoes (and no wildflowers), but the weather could not have been more perfect for a late fall hike on my gorgeous Mountain with good, good friends.

The expansive views at the upper areas of Spray Park are incredible, and I loved seeing the Mountain from a new angle that I’d never seen before. We also had a wonderful view of Cataract Valley and down into the Carbon River Valley, Mother Mountain, the whole north Cascades, and Mt. Stuart.

Of course, I had to support my favorite team while up there, so I hiked in my Seattle Sounders FC shirt and scarf, and it was Scarves UP! at the top of Spray Park for all of us 🙂

Some day, when I’m brave enough to fight the mosquitoes, I’ll make it up here again during wildflower season, which I imagine will be spectacular.

My annual pilgrimage to Sunrise, Mt. Rainier, at sunrise to see the sky and mountain light up. I hate getting up at 4 a.m., but this is so very worth it!  J and E and I were on the road before 5 a.m., and after hiking a little bit out of the parking lot we settled in to watch the dawn. My advice… JUST GO DO IT!!!  The road to Sunrise usually closes mid-October for winter, so this is my way of saying goodbye to this section of Rainier every year.

After watching a gorgeous sunrise, we hiked out to the Fremont Lookout Tower and had a relaxing picnic lunch with wonderful 360-degree views. Beautiful day with good friends, in a most spectacular area of Mt. Rainier.  GO!

Another wonderful hike along the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point at Rainier. Coming out of the parking lot I said I’d like to see marmots, and we definitely got marmots! They were posing and flirting with us… great way to try out my new camera. Even though the wildflowers were spent at the end of September (and it’s the BEST wildflower hike I’ve ever been on), it was still an excellent hike, amazing views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood.  And marmots… a lot of marmots!