Summertime brings hordes of people and mosquitoes to several areas of Mt. Rainier. Fran and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather last weekend, and the fact that the gate to Mowich Lake is still closed and that mosquitoes aren’t out yet. We backpacked from Paul Peak parking lot up to Mowich Lake on Friday night and camped there, with only 2 other groups. In the summertime this place is a madhouse and I would never, ever stay there.
Early Saturday morning we woke up to gorgeous sunny skies, had coffee/tea and oatmeal, and headed out to Eunice Lake and the Tolmie lookout tower. There should be several feet of snow still covering everything up there, but it was 99.9% snow-free the entire way. Beautiful, but kind of scary also to see the lack of snow cover, makes me wonder what this summer is going to be like. We had the Tolmie lookout tower entirely to ourselves, and had a wonderful picnic lunch up there while enjoying one of the best views to be had of Mt. Rainier. After wandering around Eunice Lake and enjoying the wonderful geography and cliffs, we headed back to our campsite.
We were lucky to be packing up camp just as a ranger was heading back down the hill, and were able to hitch a ride with him back to our car parked 5 miles down the road. Being up there without the summer crowds and with no mosquitoes was a treat!!!
