This trail begins at the Glacier View Trailhead in the woods and after 100 yards reaches a "T" junction. To the right, the trail goes to Glacier View. To the left, the Puyallup Trail heads towards Goat Lake and Gobblers Knob. The trail soon enters the Glacier View Wilderness. There was some nice fall color under the trees.
In less than 0.5 miles, the trail descends to Beljica Meadows and travels along the north edge of these meadows.
View of Beljica Peak to the south.
Panorama of one of the meadows:
About 1 mile from the trailhead, the trail joins up with the trail from Lake Christine (on the right), continue left around an unnamed ridge line before descending down to the Goat Lake Basin.
Goat Lake is about 2.5 miles from the trailhead. Panoramic View of Goat Lake:
The trail continues from the north side of Goat Lake, through the woods, entering Mount Rainier National Park. The trail climbs up along the south side of Gobblers Knob, alternating between the forest and open areas. It is 1.5 miles from Goat Lake to Gobblers Knob with 1,100 ft of elevation gain.
As the trail climbs, the top of Mt St Helens can be seen to the southwest.
About 1 mile from Goat Lake, the trail begins to descend towards Lake George, watch for the spur trail to the left that heads up to Gobblers Knob.
As the spur trail climbs in switchbacks, Mt Rainier can be seen in places.
The fire lookout atop Gobblers Knob. The trail continues up around the south side of Gobblers Knob, coming out from the west side,
for a spectacular view of Mt Rainier.
The windows on the fire lookout were all boarded up today. But the views from deck were fabulous!
Panorama looking north to east:
In the far distance to the south, I could see the Goat Rocks (zoom),
Mt Hood (very faint in the back of this zoom)
and Mt St Helens (zoom)
Close up of the Puyallup and Tahoma Glaciers on Mt Rainier
View of Goat Lake in the afternoon sun, seen on the way back down.
Some of the fungi, fall colors and other plants seen on the trail today:
No comments:
Post a Comment