With fresh snowfall overnight and the avalanche danger at considerable for tree line and above, we decided to go to Longmire on Mt Rainier for a lower elevation snowshoe trip without the dangers of avalanche. The Rampart Ridge Loop Trail is 5 miles with 1300 ft elevation gain, we did the loop and took a side trip up Van Trump Park trail for a mile out and back with an additional 500 ft elevation gain for a great day's outing.
We started across the road from the Longmire parking lot, The southern end of Rampart Ridge is in the background.
It is a nice hike it the forest. We were the first ones up the trail this morning. Lots of pristine snow.
A little shy of 2 miles, there is an overlook, looking across Longmire and the Nisqually River in the valley below.
We soon crested the ridge of this lower section, into an open section of the trail. A great place to eat lunch and enjoy the view looking over Kautz Creek and towards Satulick Mtn, Iron Mtn and Copper Mtn (whose peaks all remained cover in clouds). Mt Rainier also remained cloud covered today.
The trail descends about 250 ft where it joins the Wonderland Trail, heading east takes you back down to Longmire. It was early in the afternoon, the day was nice, and we still had lots of energy, so we decided to continue up Rampart Ridge along the Van Trump Park trail for about another mile and gaining about an additional 500 ft. We had this trail to ourselves. We continued until our agreed upon turn around time of 2pm, then headed back toward Longmire.
As the loop trail nears Longmire, there is an opening in the trees, you can look up and see the "Ramparts", sheer rocky cliffs, where the trail stays back in the woods.
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