Rainier Wrap-up

I have highlighted some of my most epic and memorable adventures from Mount Rainier in the posts that I have made. However, there are many more areas of Rainier that I explored, some of these were with great friends that I wouldn't feel right leaving out of my blog. In this final Mount Rainier entry, I'll combine the rest of these adventures.

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Eagle Peak

One of the first hikes that I attempted during the summer was Eagle Peak, which is accessed near the Longmire community where I lived. Eagle Peak is the westernmost peak of the Tatoosh range, a rugged mountain range located near the Park's southern boundary. 

It was June when I decided to try a solo hike to the top, which was a time that many areas of the Park were still snow covered. I wasn't expecting the Eagle Peak trail to be any different as I ascended towards the top. Still, I decided to see how far I could make it.

Along the way, I ended up running into some friends that had also decided to attempt Eagle Peak. Perfect. Company is always welcome.

I hiked with the group, and as expected, we ran into snow as we ascended the trail. Luckily, we could still find our way and made it all the way to the "saddle", where the trail ended.

During the summer, it is possible to hike to the very top of Eagle Peak, which leaves the trail. However, the snow and icy conditions at the top would make that a dangerous attempt this early in the year.

It was a gorgeous day to be out for a hike, and I was happy to meet up with some friends.

Here are some pics:

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Grove of the Patriarchs & Silver Falls

Two of the most popular "short" hikes at Rainier are located in the southeast, low elevation areas of the Park, near an area called Ohanapecosh. These are the trails to Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver Falls.

Neither of these hikes provide amazing views, nor do they wind through wildflower meadows like some of the "classic" Rainier hikes. Instead, these trails take you through old growth forest, with the ending point of Grove of the Patriarchs being two ancient Douglas fir trees and a massive western red cedar. Silver Falls (as you might assume) takes you to an impressive waterfall. These are excellent, laid back strolls with little elevation change, and great if you want to see a slightly "different" side of Rainier without overly exerting yourself.

Another point of interest on the Grove of the Patriarchs trail is a suspension bridge that crosses a crystal clear, pebbly river.

Here I am, in front of the two 1000-year-old Douglas fir trees on Grove of the Patriarchs trail:

 

Another look at the same trees (notice the top of the tree on the right is gone. It could have snapped off in a wind storm or lightning strike hundreds of years ago, yet the tree is still alive.)

Just around the corner from these trees is the end of the trail, which is built on a boardwalk around a massive western red cedar. Here's me with my friends, Dana and Russ, in front of the tree for a size perspective:

Looking towards the top of the tree:

Another huge cedar tree nearby:

There are a few different ways to access Silver Falls, but if you're at already at Grove of the Patriarchs, you might as well take the trail that starts directly across the street (see map).

Starting from that access point, this hike is a little longer, but still short and fairly easy overall.

I'll let the pictures do the storytelling.

Two great places, with easily accessible beauty. Be sure to check them out if you ever find your way to Mount Rainier.
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Pinnacle Peak
One day, I got home from work and didn't feel like settling in and grabbing a beer (which was the usual post-work repertoire). Instead, I was feeling a bit adventurous. Summers in the Pacific Northwest provide long daylight hours, and I decided that this would be a good day to take advantage of that.

Pinnacle Peak is the second highest peak in the Tatoosh Range (with a name like "Pinnacle," you'd think it would be the highest, but it's just shy of nearby Unicorn Peak). The Pinnacle Peak trail is moderately strenuous by most standards because of elevation gain, although fairly short. This is one of those "classic" day hikes that I wouldn't have felt right leaving Rainier having never completed.

The Pinnacle Peak trailhead is located directly across the Stevens Canyon Road from the famous Reflection Lakes. When I arrived, I immediately started hiking briskly to combat the waning daylight hours.

The maintained trail ended at the ridgetop between Pinnacle Peak and Plummer Peak. It's possible to reach the true summit of both of these peaks, but it was late in the evening and the sun was already starting to set so I decided to just do a little exploring along the ridge.

From the ridgetop, views of Rainier to the north were excellent:

Looking to south, it was hazy, but Mount Adams was also clearly visible.

After enjoying the sunset and exploring the ridge, it was time to head back. I brought my headlamp, but I still didn't want to be hiking down the fairly steep, uneven trail in complete darkness. 

As I started back, I ran into this huge, beetle-like insect on the trail:

It turned out that I probably stuck around the ridgetop longer than I should have. I wasn't even halfway back to the trailhead before digging my headlamp out of my backpack. I like night hiking, but I prefer it when I have company. At one point, I saw a set of eyes glowing back at me as I aimed my headlamp in the creature's direction. At first, I couldn't make out the shape of its body in the darkness. This was black bear and mountain lion country, and although I'm not normally afraid of either, seeing one that close while alone in the darkness was an eerie thought. I was frozen in my tracks for a few seconds, before I could finally make out the shape of a deer's head. I yelled out, and it took off into the woods. That got my heart pounding.

I continued back to the trailhead and arrived at my car without further incident. It was a good evening hike, and another one that I was happy to cross off my list.

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One Last Adventure

I ended up sticking around Rainier about as long as I possibly could after my job was over. I just didn't want to leave! Could you blame me?

After moving out of Longmire, my friend, Emily, who lived in Tahoma Woods (another government housing community just outside of the Park) invited me to stay in her apartment for my last few days in Washington. She had an open room, and I had a hard time turning down the offer.

One of my very last days in Washington, I was up for one last adventure. Nothing crazy, just something new.

After scouting out my map, I decided that I'd check out a hike that starts just outside of the park in the Glacier View Wilderness, which is part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

I took the fairly rough Forest Service road 059 to the even rougher 5920. These roads had lots of ruts and probably wouldn't be accessible in a low clearance vehicle.

I parked at the Lake Christine trailhead and started my hike. I was originally planning on hiking into the Park and and up Gobbler's Knob (one of the fire lookouts). However, I took a wrong turn where the trail forked, and ended continuing north instead of heading east. Sometimes wrong turns don't turn out so bad, and this was one of those times. The trail led to a large rocky area, which provided excellent views of Rainier. The views were unlike any that I had observed all summer because of the perspective I was  seeing it from.

I never got a full view of Rainier because of the mid-level clouds, but seeing the base and the top of the mountain was good enough for me. The clouds just added an extra cool effect.

A zoomed-in look at the Tahoma Glacier:

A look at Gobbler's Knob lookout (the place I had planned on hiking to).

The views in the direction of Rainier were probably better than anywhere else due to low clouds. Still, those clouds provided some pretty cool wisping displays.

Here's some of those cotton candy-like clouds:

They were mesmerizing. I stayed on that rock for a long time, watching the clouds and enjoying some of the final views of Rainier that I would get all summer. 

When I was finally ready, I got up and started retracing my steps. The trail continued north but I had some last minute errands to run before heading home.

On the way back, I discovered a large wild blueberry patch, which I took full advantage of. I gorged myself with ripe berries for 20 minutes. I felt like a bear by the time I was done.

Although it didn't take me to where I had planned, it was an awesome adventure to end the summer. I was feeling bummed out that it was all coming to an end, but I knew that I'd be back. There is no way I'd let myself stay away after the summer that I just had.

Here's a great big thank you for everyone that contributed to one of the best summers of my life!

Mount Rainier: Visitors Welcome

My summer in Washington was spent exploring new places, and making great new friends. That would have been more than enough to satisfy me. But on top of that, I was able to share my experience with a couple of people I'd known for a while: my dad, and my friend, Ali. Neither of them had been to Washington before, so it was a good opportunity to show the place off. 

 

My first visitor was my friend, Ali, who I met in college. I picked her up at the airport in Seattle, before heading back to my place in the Park. That night, we kicked back around a campfire with some friends and stayed up late, hanging out with my roommate, Shenon. It was a good night, and it was great getting to hang out with Ali for the first time in a while. Let's not forget, though, there was also some exploring to be done!

 

Ali was only visiting for a couple of days, so I tried to make the most of her trip by showing her some unforgettable scenery. Unfortunately, during most of her visit, Rainier was cloud-covered. We didn't let that ruin her trip though, and the weather overall was actually decent. 

 

Ali at Narada Falls:

Bridge karate:

Ali likes to sit down for photos.

   




  I convinced her to stand up for a shot of both of us.

Later, she prepared herself for another photo by promptly taking a seat.

I took Ali to a place called Snow Lake. As we hiked back to the trailhead, we caught Ali her very first glimpse of Rainier. It was brief, but a welcome sight nonetheless.

Later, I took Ali on 'Trail of the Shadows'. This is a very short trail in Longmire with interpretive signs that talk about the old growth forest and the area's history. Here are some highlights from this cool little walk.                                                      

 

                             Beaver-chewed tree:                           

Centipede:

Ali's interpretive forest pose:

When it was time to drive Ali back to the airport in Seattle, I decided to go the long way - out through the northeast side of the park, rather than the traditional route through the southwestern Nisqually Entrance. I had never taken this drive and thought a change of scenery would be nice, and might offer better views of Rainier on our way out of the Park. Because of the rain shadow effect, you can often get views of Rainier from the east, even when it's entirely socked in on the west side.

It turned out to be a really nice day, and we got out of the car a couple of times to take photos of Rainier. Finally, Ali got the full view!

I was happy to host Ali for a couple of days, and wish that she could have stayed longer. Hopefully she had a memorable experience.

Ali loves to travel, and has now lived in several different countries. She's also an excellent writer, and operates a blog of her own. I encourage you to check it out here: The Foreign Traveler
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Just a couple of weeks after Ali visited me, my dad decided to come and check out Rainier, too. I had two full days to show him around. The first day, the weather forecast was slightly ominous. I decided that it would be a good day to head to Sunrise - the other side of the Mountain. I wasn't counting on great weather over there either, but we at least had a better chance of getting some views on that side. I didn't make it to the east side very often, so I was looking forward to the trip, regardless of what the weather might have in store.

On our way to Sunrise, we took a quick detour to Grove of the Patriarchs, which is highlighted by some huge old growth trees (see a detailed description of this area in my "Rainier Wrap-up" post).

My dad loves big trees, so I knew this would be a worthwhile stop.

We were back on the road pretty fast, and continued towards Sunrise.

When we arrived, the weather was surprisingly not too bad. It was cloudy and breezy, but nothing to prevent us from hiking. My dad is in really good shape, but his knees are pretty bad, so I knew we wouldn't be hiking too far. I decided that we'd wander the trails in search of good views until we had enough.

When we arrived, the views of Rainier were welcome.

We ended up doing a short loop hike - the Wonderland Trail to the Sunrise Rim Trail. I was hoping to make it a slightly longer trip but the weather started to turn for the worse with chilly wind gusts accompanied by rain. Still, it was a great time spent with my dad and it felt good to show him around.

Here are some pics from our Sunrise trip:

I was happy to see that there were still some nice wildflower displays to be found.

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The next day, the weather forecast sounded promising and I wanted to make the most of it. I worked out of the Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise, which I usually tried to avoid on my days off because of its touristy nature. However, the Paradise wildflower meadows, along with stunning views of Rainier and ease of trail access made it a no-brainer when deciding where to take my dad on the last day of his visit.

As I had hoped, it was a gorgeous day, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The previous day was fun, but I'm always slightly disappointed when the weather restricts what I can do. That wouldn't be happening on this day.

We started hiking up the Skyline Trail, with no real goal in mind. I knew we probably wouldn't be doing the full five mile loop because the climb would be hard on my dad's knees. Getting close-up views of Rainier combined with wildflower meadows would surely be good enough for him.

I'll let the pictures do the storytelling.

 This was our turnaround point - Glacier Vista:

Nisqually Glacier close-up:

On the way back, we took a slight detour through the Dead Horse Creek Trail, which loops back to the visitor center. This area offers some of the best wildflowers in the Paradise area.

As we reached the parking lot, I took a photo of this John Muir quote that is etched into the stairs leading to the Paradise trail system:

It seemed especially fitting on such a gorgeous day spent with my dad - a day I'll never forget. As for my dad, it was a short visit, but I think he left feeling like he got the most of his trip. His knees were sore, but hopefully the soreness was satisfying.