Winter Hike to Ipsut Creek

 Today we hiked along the old Carbon River Road in Mt Rainier Nat'l Park to Ipsut Creek to check out the trail conditions with all the downed trees. This is a 10 mile rt hike with 700 ft of elevation gain.
We found that all the previous downed trees before the road washout area after the trail junction with Ranger Falls had been removed by volunteers.

However, there were many large downed trees after the road washout area, there may have been 168 as noted on the status board at the Carbon River Ranger Station. I did not count all the trees we climbed over, under and around today.

At the beginning of the closed section of the old Carbon River Road is a short Rain Forest Loop.

 There are no majestic views of Mt Rainier along this trail, but there are many babbling brooks,

 many nurse logs covered in moss,

 old stumps supporting moss and ferns,

 and countless stately old trees.

 Further up the trail, there are open areas where the Carbon River and near by peaks can be seen.

 I regretted leaving my camera at home, as we saw a couple of mountain goats high up on the rocks across the river.

About 4 miles up the trail, we encountered snow. The snow was shallow, so we did not post hole, no traction nor snowshoes were needed. However, the snow did make it a bit more difficult to see where the best foot placements were in crossing over some of the downed trees.

 We saw some small cougar prints in the snow.


There were some more areas where the trail opened up close to the river and we had views of more peaks.

 As we approached the bridge over Ipsut Creek, we know we were nearing the Ipsut Creek Campground.

 Here there is an old shuttered cabin,

 with a covered area in the back, so welcome today, as a dry spot from the rain!

 As we returned back to the trailhead, I noticed a waterfall coming down off a peak across the river.

 The log bridge is out crossing the Carbon River to Chenuis Falls.

















We saw a couple of black tailed deer on the way back.