Colchuck Lake Fall Hike

 Yesterday, the weather forecast was for sunny weather up the Colchuck Lake area, so we drove up to do this beautiful 9 mile round trip hike with 2,300 ft of elevation gain. This hike starts at the end of  FSR 7601 (4 miles after leaving Icicle Road near Leavenworth).
The trail is mostly through the forest and soon enters the Alpine Lake Wilderness. The first 1.5 miles is fairly gentle trail.

 We saw some fall color along the way,

 along with many huge boulders.

 At 1.5 miles a log bridge crosses Mountaineer Creek. And the trail begins to steepen and travel over roots and rocks.












The trail follows along near Mountaineer Creek most of the way.

We saw many squirrels.

 The clouds stayed in the mountains throughout our hike.

 The trail flattens out for a bit before reaching the trail junction for Stuart Lake and Colchuck Lake at 2.5 miles from the trailhead. We went left towards Colchuck Lake.

 We soon crossed another log bridge over Mountaineer Creek.

 The trail again climbs upward.


















Our first view of Colchuck Lake, beautiful blue water, the peaks obscured in the clouds.


















The north end of Colchuck Lake,









The lake level was low and we could walk out to overlook the main part of the lake,

 the clouds continued to come in from the north, covering the peaks and turning the water gray.

 We found a nice rocky ledge to sit and eat our lunch and watch the clouds go by and change the lake color.

 Only briefly would the clouds part, giving small glimpses of Dragontail Peak.

 We spent two hours up at the lake, watching the clouds roll by and enjoying our surroundings, before heading back down the trail.

Nice fall colors as we drove down the forest road back to Leavenworth. 

Grand Park via Eleanor Lake at Mount Rainier National Park Fall Hike

We decided to hike up to Grand Park in Mt Rainier National Park from Eleanor Lake. We drove up FS Road 73 for 10 miles off of Hwy 410 to the small parking area by Eleanor Creek. There is no trail sign on the road, but the trail can easily be seen from the parking area. On one side, the sign says Eleanor Creek elev 2980 and on the other side Eleanor Creek elev 4340 (the latter is the correct elevation).
The hike to Grand Park can be between 6 - 10 miles round trip with 1,100 ft of elevation gain, depending on how far into Grand Park you want to go.

 The trail starts in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and enters into Mt Rainier National Park within 0.25 miles.

One mile from the start of the trail, you reach Lake Eleanor (panoramic view of the lake)

 There was a little bit of fall color along part of the lake shore.

The trail then heads east from the lake through the forest over a small ridge, then continues to the southwest.

In another 0.5 mile, the trail goes through a small meadow. Then continues through the forest.

At 3 miles from the trailhead, you reach the northern end of Grand Park, we could see Mount Fremont in the distance. The trail continues along the western edge of Grand Park, and within 0.5 mile, Mt Rainier comes into view.

The top of Mt Rainier was covered in clouds while we were at Grand Park today, but the views were still impressive. We could see the lookout on Mount Fremont, First and Second Burroughs, Skyscraper Mountain and Third Burroughs in front of Mt Rainier. It was fun to see where I had been hiking yesterday.

Grand Park is about 2 miles long. Panoramic view of Grand Park looking north, back along the trail we came up today:

 At 4.5 miles from the trailhead, the trail joins the Northern Loop Trail. We headed south along the trail in the direction of Berkley Park, Grand Park continues another 0.5 miles along this trail.
 We hiked a short ways through the forest beyond Grand Park and found a place out of the fragile meadows to sit and eat our lunch. We had a good view of Mount Fremont here. After lunch, we returned back the way we had come.

 A moth found in the meadow.














Some of the many fungi seen along the trail today: