Ranger Falls and Green Lake Winter Hike

 Went up to the Carbon River Entrance of Mt Rainier National Park for a hike with Ranger Shawn and Biologist Danny for an informative nature walk up to Ranger Falls and Green Lake. Hike was about 10 miles rt with 1,300 ft of elevation gain.
We had a bit a rain on and off the first hour or so, but it was nice for the rest of the day.
The first part of the hike is 3 miles on the old Carbon River Road. Lots of beautiful trees.

 Lots of trees have come down in the big Fall and Winter storms. Volunteers have been working on removing some of these trees from the road.
















However, there are still many downed trees to go over and under, these were the biggest ones we had to get over/under.

 I love all the different variations of nurse logs we saw today.

 These nurse log was over one of the streams.

 We learned how to tell the difference between douglas fir, spruce, and hemlock trees (along with many other things).

 A beautiful large nurse rock!

 The Carbon River has been eroding the road. Not sure these trees will be here much longer.

After walking along the road for 3 miles, we reached the trailhead to Ranger Falls and Green Lake.

 Just a small amount of patchy snow on the lower part of the trail.

















More downed trees along the trail, some had been here for a long time.

Lots of beautiful creeks running down the hillside besides the trail.

 About 1 mile up this part of the trail we reached the short spur trail to Ranger Falls.

 Beautiful falls, so much running water today.

 Soon after Ranger Falls, we ran into consistent snow on the trail. It was pretty well packed down, with a slushy layer on top, so we did not need to use snowshoes or traction today.

 Some interesting lichen and mold

 Wooden bridge crosses Ranger Creek shortly before reaching Green Lake.

 Ranger Creek

 Green Lake covered with snow.

On the way back down, the sky had cleared up for a great view of the Carbon River.