Comet Falls and Van Trump Park

 Despite the heavy smoke from the wildfires covering most of Western Washington, the air quality at Mt Rainier has been good in the mornings, so I choose a hike I could complete in the morning: Comet Falls and Van Trump Park. 6 miles round trip with 2,000 ft of elevation gain. I was the first one in the parking area about 7 am, and didn't see any other hikers until I was hiking back down the trail near Comet Falls.

Shortly after starting the trail, a bridge crosses Van Trump Creek.

 View of Van Trump Creek above the bridge.

View of Van Trump Creek below the bridge (road in the distance).

The trail steadily goes uphill, mostly in the forest. From the trailhead you gain 900 ft of elevation over 1.9 miles.

There is a section where part of Mt Rainier can be seen in the distance. I was happy to see the mountain and blue sky.

Interesting basalt formation in one of the talus fields. I heard pike, but did not see any today.

There are a couple of places where you can see cascades along Van Trump Creek through the trees.

Van Trump Park is up above there, here the trail is getting close to the bridge across Van Trump Creek.

Bridge across Van Trump Creek.

Van Trump Falls above the bridge.

First view of Comet Falls after crossing Van Trump Creek. In the bottom of the photo is a deer crossing the creek far below Comet Falls.

 Comet Falls a bit up the trail.

 Wildflowers along the trail near Comet Falls.

 From Comet Falls it is an 1,100 ft gain over 1 mile. There were lots of ripe huckleberries along the trail.

There weren't many wildflowers in bloom, but there were some.

After 0.7 miles and about 500 ft of gain, the trail into Van Trump Park splits from the trail continuing down Rampart Ridge.

 View of Mt Rainier as the trail enters Van Trump Park.

View a bit further along Van Trump Park.

 The "maintained" trail ends after 0.3 miles and another 600 ft of gain. A well marked trail continues on for quite a ways.

 I hiked about 50 feet from the end of the "maintained" trail for this view of Mt Rainier at Van Trump Park.
I choose not to continue along this trail as I wanted to be back at the car well before noon today.















wide angle view at Van Trump Park:

Two deer feeding in the forest next to the trail as I hiked back down to Comet Falls.

Rainbow at Comet Falls on the hike back down.

 view of Comet Falls as I continued down the trail.

another view of the bridge crossing Van Trump Creek at Van Trump Falls.

 There were lots of butterflies flying around the wildflowers that were still in bloom.

an interesting insect

some of the wildflowers and berries seen along the trail today: