Westside Road in Mt Rainier National Park Snowshoe

 We were fortunate that the snow level has come down to 2,000 ft, so we were able to do a winter hike/snowshoe up the closed Westside Road in Mt Rainier National Park. I think this gravel road goes 12 miles up the westside of Mt Rainier. Some years ago the road was closed 3 miles up due to Tahoma Creek washing out a portion of the road. In the winter this road is closed shortly after turning off the main road into the park.
There is no risk of avalanches along the first 3 miles of the road (the portion which is open in the summer). As the avy condition was considerable today, this was a nice safe option. 6 miles round trip with 750 ft of elevation gain.
There was only an inch of snow at the beginning of the road. We did not put our snowshoes on for the first two miles.

 This is mainly a walk through the forest. There were a couple of small streams along the side of the road.

 In the summer, I have driven up this section of the road not paying much attention. It was nice to have the time to enjoy the forest here today.

 There were several places where Tahoma Creek comes close to the road

 The only other tracks we saw were some animal tracks. We did not see any other people here today.

 Snow covered trees are so beautiful

 another view of Tahoma Creek

 Occasionally, the clouds would move and we could see nearby ridges.

 some lovely moss

another ridge

 Mt Wow as seen from 3 miles up the road. We decided to take a lunch break and turn around here as we had no need to walk past the large boulder field and avalanche chute.

 Some more views of Tahoma Creek as we walked back down the road