Snow Lake & Gem Lake Snow Hike

 A beautiful sunny morning today had us heading up to Snoqualmie Pass and Alpental to hike up to Snow Lake and Gem Lake. This is a gorgeous hike into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. 10+ mile round trip with about 2,200 ft overall elevation gain. The trail was icy most of the way and we wore our micro spikes along the entire trail. 
One of the many water crossings along the trail, mostly ice, but there is running water.

 Icy and snowy trail.

 Beautiful snow covered peaks seen on the way up the trail.

 Lots of icicles today.

 Snow Lake as seen coming down from the pass.

 Instead of going to the shore at Snow Lake, we continued on the trail towards Gem Lake, It was very windy here with ripples in the water, and not much reflection.

 The trail crosses over this partially iced over creek.

 Snow Lake, further along the trail, we will go up over that ridge to reach Gem Lake.

 Enjoying the views around Snow Lake as we hike around it.

 We were happy that the log crossing only had a light covering of snow and was not icy today!

 Along parts of the trail, we had nice views of these peaks over the Snoqualmie Valley

Ptarmigan enjoying the sun.

 It was perfectly calm up at Gem Lake. The lake was beginning to ice over, but we were able to enjoy the peaks reflecting in the water.

 We headed up the hillside to the north of Gem Lake, and had a beautiful view of Glacier View to the north.

We went part way up Wright Mountain, until the tracks disappeared and I decided the way was too steep and icy for my comfort level. I would like to come back up in the summer when the snow is gone from Wright Mountain to get to the top.

 Gorgeous views of the Snoqualmie Valley.

 We headed back down to Gem Lake for the views, lunch and more picture taking.

 Looking towards the outlet of Gem Lake

 More of Gem Lake

 On our way out, we stopped to get photos of Wright Mountain reflected in Gem Lake. There are a couple of hikers on top of Wright Mountain, who came up after us.

 Heading back down to Snow Lake, seen below.

 By the time we reached the shore of Snow Lake, the sun had gone down behind the peaks, and I loved the change in color.

 More icicles.

 Frozen icy covering running water.

Looking down towards Alpental from the pass on the south side of Snow Lake.

Paradise Winter Hike

 Beautiful cold, sunny day today. We drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park, thinking of hiking up to Panorama Point. The gate didn't open until almost 10 AM today.
We started by taking the Alta Vista Trail up towards Glacier Vista. The snow wasn't very deep, we didn't need snow shoes, but did use microspikes as some areas were icy. View of the Tatoosh Range from near the beginning of the trail.

 Beautiful day, with clear blue sky. A wonderful winter wonderland.

As we neared Glacier Vista We encounter strong winds. We decided against going up to Panorama Point, but enjoyed the views along Glacier Vista.

 Looking back toward the Tatoosh Range with Mt Adams and Mt St Helens south of them.

Zoom of Mt St Helens peeking over the Tatoosh.

Zoom of Adams peeking over the Tatoosh, here the wind was blowing the loose snow sideways!

After we had lunch, we decided to hike the closed Paradise Valley Road towards Reflection Lakes. By the time we reached 4th crossing, the only prints in the snow were animal prints.  We hiked out until we reached the Lakes Trail and found the trail marking sticks had not yet been placed. We didn't feel comfortable finding our way through the woods in snow without the marking sticks, and didn't think we'd make it to Reflections Lakes and back along the road in the time we had left, so we turned back.

 We enjoyed the snow and ice formations.














The creek at 4th crossing:

I love the hike back along the Paradise Valley Road as we were hiking straight into fabulous views of Mt Rainier.

 Around the hairpin turn in the road, back up to Paradise and the views of the Tatoosh Range.









Back at Paradise, fun day in the sun and snow. We hiked about 5 miles overall with around 1,000 ft of elevation gain.

We stopped at Longmire on the drive down, such a different perspective of Mt Rainier seen here.

Naches Loop Fall Hike

 Drove up to Tipsoo Lake near Chinook Pass on Hwy 410 to do the Naches Peak Loop trail, a 5 mile hike. Part of this hike is in Mt Rainier National Park, and part is outside the park in the William O Douglas Wilderness along the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). We ended up only hiking about 2.5 miles in the snow, because of the increasing lack of visibility and not that confident of our route finding, as I had only done this hike once before in the summer several years ago.
There were icy sections of the trail, so we wore our microspikes, the snow wasn't deep enough to use our snowshoes. At the beginning of the trail, we could follow footprints of previous hikers earlier in the week.

 A small snowman greeted us near the beginning of the trail. From the parking lot at Tipsoo Lake, we headed clockwise toward Chinook Pass.

 The pond near Tipsoo Lake

 The footbridge crossing Hwy 410 at Chinook Pass

 Hiking along the PCT.

 Entering the William O Douglas Wilderness

 We saw lots of icicles this morning.

 About 1.25 miles along the trail we came to some small subalpine lakes. Because of the decreasing visibility, the lack of tracks, and our not wanting to depend on our route finding; we turned around here and retraced our way back to the trailhead.

 We saw some pinwheels on the hillside near the trail.

Panorama at Tipsoo Lake on our way back to the car.

 We had fun hiking in the snow this morning!

Snow Lake and Gem Lake Fall Hike

 A beautiful sunny morning today had us heading up to Snoqualmie Pass and Alpental to hike up to Snow Lake and Gem Lake. This is a gorgeous hike into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. 10+ mile round trip with about 2,200 ft overall elevation gain. The trail was icy on the way down from pass down to Snow Lake and from Snow Lake up to Gem Lake today.

Early along the trail, we could see the snow covered Tooth, Bryant Peak and Chair Peak.

 There were several small waterfalls coming down off of the hillsides.

 Water spilling over the trail.

 Better views of the Tooth and Bryant Peak as we continued up the trail.

 There were some frost covered plants along the first part of the trail.

 View from the switchbacks heading up to the pass before Snow Lake.

 At the pass, we entered the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and encountered our first snow on the trail.

 There was a small snowman to greet us this morning.

Icicles.

 The trail down from the pass had little snow, but was very icy. Our first view of Snow Lake and the trail descends to the lake. The trail to Gem Lake goes around the far side, up the ridge in the back, and crosses between the two peaks.

 Water heading down through this pond towards Snow Lake,


















instead of heading down to the shore of Snow Lake here, we continued on the main trail going over these rocks.

Wide angle view of Snow Lake from further up the trail.

In the morning the sun was shinning, the sky was blue and so was the lake. Love the reflection!

For a short ways, the trail goes to the northeast, away from Snow Lake to the junction of the High Lakes Trail and the Rock Creek Trail. Here we could see these beautiful snowy peaks. Maybe Chimney Rock West and Summit Chief Mountain. 

The High Lakes Trail to Gem Lake, returns to Snow Lake and  crosses Rock Creek on this log.

Looking towards Rock Creek from the log.

 As the trail climbed up above Snow Lake, we encountered more snow on the trail and saw this pika.

There were lots of wild cat prints in the snow.

There were frozen ponds along the way.

Almost at the pass above Snow Lake towards Gem Lake.

Gem Lake with Wright Mountain behind it.

The views from further along the trail were spectacular!  Maybe Kaleetan Peek in the background? 

We didn't make it to the far side of Gem Lake, as we had reached our "turn around" time. 

Heading back down from the pass to Snow Lake, seen below. The pass from the trailhead to Snow Lake is seen at the far side of Snow Lake.

A pond seen on the way back down to Snow Lake.

By the time we returned to Snow Lake, the skies were getting cloudy and the lake was turning gray.

Wide angle shot of Snow Lake in the afternoon.

A great day outdoors in the wilderness today. We were surprised to see this harebell in bloom along the trail.

Some of the fall colors and mushrooms we saw along the trail: