Crystal Peak Spring Hike

Yesterday we headed up the recently opened 410 Hwy to Mt Rainier National Park and hiked up to Crystal Peak. This is about 8 mile round trip with 3000 ft of elevation gain. We didn't get to the top today, but had a great hike with sunny skies and gorgeous views. There was fresh snow on the trail and no human footprints.

The trail starts with a small bridge crossing over Crystal Creek and starts climbing through the forest.

 After 1.3 miles the trail divides, Crystal Lakes to the left and Crystal Peak to the right.

 We saw several different animal prints on the trail including these large elk prints leading us further up the trail.

 Another wooden bridge crosses Crystal Creek further upstream.


















The trail continues to climb up the south flank of Crystal Peak through the woods, where we began to get a peek of Mt Rainier through the trees.

 Soon the trail opens up along some avalanche chutes between the forested sections.

 We had great views of Mt Rainier and the White River valley.

 The snow was deeper and made for slower going with lots of snow balls gathering under our boots.

 We found where we thought the trail takes a big switchback to the west and headed up. Soon after this, there was no sign of a trail. We attempted to hike straight up the side of Crystal Peak to the top, but the snow covering was not as deep, the slope very steep and my legs were getting tired. We decided to turn back to the big switchback, where we sat eating our lunch and enjoying the view. We made it up to 5775 ft, about 800 ft short of the top. We'll come back another day when the snow is melted.

We followed our tracks back down the trail.
We hiked almost 7 miles, enjoyed our time in the mountains and had the hike almost to ourselves. We met one other couple headed up as we were going down.







One more gorgeous view!

(evidence of an avalanche in the lower right corner of this picture)
big thank you to my friend Kim, who shared her photos with me when I discovered my phone battery was gone.