Rampart Ridge Winter Hike

 We were hoping to go up to Reflection Lake and beyond on Mt Rainier today, but the gate at Longmire was closed and we were told the opening would be at least 2 hours late. So we made alternate plans over a hot drink at the Inn at Longmire.
We did see some elk on the drive up!

We decided to do the Rampart Ridge Loop Trail and go counterclockwise, as I heard some people had a difficult time finding the trail where it joins the Wonderland Trail when coming the other way. Plus it was fun to go the opposite way that I had hiked before.  This was a 5 mile loop hike with 1,300 ft of elevation gain.

There were no reports on how much new snow had fallen on the ridge overnight, so we carried our snowshoes with us. We ended up not using them, but I would have been sad if I had to turn around due to post holing.

The sky was overcast with a light rain when we started out, so we donned our rain gear and headed up the Wonderland Trail. 

 This part of the trail was well packed down and a mixture of slushy and icy, so we wore our microspikes. There was evidence of the fierce windstorms from last fall as we both hiked over, and

  ducked under fallen trees along the way.
The rain soon stopped, but we kept on our rain gear, as the trees were dripping in the warming day.

 We went across a couple of small streams on log and bridge crossings.  Further up the ridge, we met a couple of young men who had spent the night at Kautz Creek, so we had their snowshoe tracks to follow while we stayed on the Wonderland Trail.

About 1.5 miles, we reached the junction where the trail up to Van Trump Park splits off, noting that our trail turnoff would be about 0.2 miles further along the Wonderland Trail.

This section was well trampled by our snowshoing friends.

 We caught a glimpse of the end of the Tatoosh Range above the trees in one area.

 We could not find the sign where the Rampart Ridge Trail leaves the Wonderland Trail. It must be buried in the snow. About 6" of new snow had come down since anyone last came up the Rampart Ridge Trail. We were still able to see an indentation in the snow, marking where the trail lay underneath the snow. I love new snow!  We could see the sun coming out from the clouds above us, as we hiked along the Rampart Ridge in the forest. This section is about a mile long. We had lots of snow come off the trees, but did not have any snow bombs land on us.

 For a short ways, the trail breaks out into the open. Here we found the deepest snow, but did not need to wear our snowshoes.

 Here we turned around, and were happy to see Mount Rainier with no cloud cover!

Such an amazing view!

 Panorama looking across Pyramid Creek toward Satulick Mountain, Iron Mountain, Copper Mountain, Pyramid Peak and Mt Rainier.

 The trail then crosses up and over Rampart Ridge, and heads back down to Longmire. We had some views across the Nisqually River Valley of Eagle, Chutla and Wahpenayo Peaks in the Tatoosh Range.

 Were also able to see down to Longmire in the valley below.

 We started down the switchbacks towards Longmire in the fresh snow, it was a while before we met hikers coming up the trail. Amazing how we had most of the trail to ourselves today.

 There were a few bare patches on the trail where water crossed the trail.

 Longmire meadow, a short flat section on our way back to the Longmire Inn.

The clouds had lifted, and we were able to view Mt Rainier from the Longmire Inn. A great ending to a fun hike.