Mount Rose

 We headed out to Mount Rose, which is in the south end of the Olympic Mountains. This is a 6.4 mile hike, if you do the loop at the upper section. Because of the snow, we decided to hike up and back taking the left trail of the loop up to the summit, making our hike 5.8 miles rt with 3,500 ft of elevation gain.
There is a short trail from the parking lot to the the trailhead, we passed over two foot bridges and saw the creek full of water from the melting snow.

 This trail is mainly in the forest, with occasional glimpses of Lake Cushman below.  We saw a few dogwood trees in bloom amongst the towering fir trees.
















A bit off the trail, were some rhododendrons in bloom. It was very misty this morning.

The trail climbs 1,190 ft in the first 1.1 miles at the Mt Skokomish Wilderness Boundary. Then an additional 1,060 ft in the next 0.7 miles to reach the junction with the summit/loop trail. Then it is 1,250 ft in the final 1.1 miles to the summit.














We encountered consistent snow at 3,400 ft.
We lost the trail here, and went cross country for a while.

We eventually, found a few pink ribbons on tree branches marking the way up towards the summit. But there were places where the ribbons had been torn and were only fragments. And there were stretches where we could not see any ribbons.
















 About 200 - 300 ft below the summit, we found a spot to take a break and enjoy the view. We could see, Lake Cushman, Hood Canal, Puget Sound, and above the clouds in the distance: Mt Rainier.







It seems that several trees have come down since by last trip to the top a couple of years ago. We continued to have some views to the southeast until we reached the top rock outcropping.















Pano from the rock outcropping at the summit of Mount Rose, looking west - northwest

 Not only is this trail steep going up, it is steep coming down.

 Some of the flowers and plants we saw in bloom today on the trail: