Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Took a nice 4 mile round trip hike at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey, right off I-5.

There were lots of mallards at the pond

 Watched a flock of geese come down for a landing in the water.









Still some fall color hanging on.











There were several great blue herons, this one was walking right next to the dike trail.














I liked this seagull with his reflection in the water.

 Another seagull resting on the boardwalk over the delta












This hawk soared over the water for quite awhile.










The last 700 ft of the boardwalk is closed during waterfowl hunting season (late Oct - late January)









some more birds with their reflections in the water

  

Crystal Peak

Tomorrow morning Chinook Pass will be closed for the winter and wsdot closes the road on the west side at the entrance to Mt Rainier NP. So I decided to get one last hike up in that area for the year and decided to do the Crystal Peak hike, 8 miles round trip with 3,100 ft of gain. The first two miles are in the forest, but about 0.6 mile and 800 ft of gain, there is a short clearing off one of the switchbacks to get this nice view of Mt Rainier (photo has been cropped to look closer):

 At 1.5 miles the trail splits off to the right from the Crystal Lakes trail. About 2 miles from the trailhead, the trail opens up with lovely views of Mt Rainier, here looking up the White River.

 View of Crystal Peak with about 1 mile left to hike
There were icy patches off and on along the last 2 miles of trail, with the summit being snow/ice free.

 When the trail passes under this tree snag, know you are getting close

 The last section of the trail is up

 and up. I only saw one hiker coming down as I hiked up to the top, and had the top to myself. I saw about a dozen hikers heading up on my way back down the trail.












Loved the clear day, from the top I saw 6 volcanos!


Looking south to west: Mt Adams, Mt Hood (too hazy to show up on my phone photo), St Helens and Mt Rainier








From west to north: Rainier, Mt Baker (very hazy) and Glacier Peak

 To the east the cirque that holds Upper Crystal Lake. Last week we were came across that ridge line from Sourdough Gap to enjoy the views above Upper Crystal Lake looking toward Crystal Peak and Mt Rainier.

zoom of Three Way Peak and the hole in the rock near the top.

 Loved the hike down, enjoying the view!!!

Comet Falls and Van Trump Park

 We headed up to Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Comet Falls and Van Trump Park, about 6 miles round trip with 2,000 ft of gain. The trail was icy off and on, and we choose to use our microspikes and were glad we had poles.
Near the beginning of the trail a foot bridges crosses Van Trump Creek above Christine Falls (which can not be seen from this trail as we are above the falls).

Van Trump Creek above the foot bridge

 Van Trump Creek belowthe foot bridge

 There are several places along the trail with views of Van Trump Creek with many cascades carving out small pools along the way.















A way up the trail, the view opens up briefly for a view of the top of Mt Rainier.
















Lots of lovely frosty fallen leaves along the trail

 There were several sections of icy trail, especially going through the boulders.
















About 1.6 miles from the trailhead a log bridge crosses the east fork of Van Trump Creek with lovely views of Bloucher Falls (124 ft drop)

 200 ft further along the trail, we had our first view of Comet Falls (320 ft drop)
















The trail continues for another 0.2 miles with continues views of Comet Falls, until going steeply uphill for 0.8 miles to the junction of th Rampart Ridge Trail

 As the trail nears the junction to Van Trump Park we had distant views of Mt St Helens and












Mt Adams to the south

 From Rampart Ridge, there is a side trail to Van Trump Park. Our first view of Rainier in Van Trump Park.
We continued about 0.5 mile to the end of the a maintained trail (mostly covered in well packed snow) and continued a short ways until we reached a clearing with great views.

 We enjoyed sitting in the views and soaking up the sun, a made a temporary snow angel.

 On our hike back down the trail we saw a grouse

















There were a few fungi along the lower sections of the trail

Tipsoo Lake

 After our hike to Sheep Lake, Sourdough Gap and Upper Crystal Lake today, we decided to stop and hike around Tipsoo Lake at Chinook Pass in Mt Rainier National Park. There is a trail around the lake that is about 0.25 mile.

We found a snow bear near the lake.






The lake is only partially frozen.

 Mt Rainier in the distance was very hazy this afternoon.

 Yakima Peak across Tipsoo Lake













a little better view of Mt Rainier as we continued around the lake

Naches Peak across Tipsoo Lake

Nice reflection in the pond adjacent to Tipsoo Lake, we watched a small bird repeatedly dive into the water here.

Sheep Lake, Sourdough Gap and Crystal Lake Overlook

We drove up to Chinook Pass to get in a hike with great views today. We hiked north on the PCT to the Crystal Lakes Trail junction and hiked part way down to Upper Crystal Lake. This was about 7 miles round trip with 1,200 ft of gain.

From Chinook Pass, the PCT heading north follows above hwy 410 on the way to Sheep Lake. View of the highway and Naches Peak.
There was intermittent icy snow on the trail.





It is 1.8 miles with 400 ft of gain to Sheep Lake. Wide angle view of Sheep Lake with 400 ft of gain. Sourdough Gap is in the background.






From Sheep Lake it is 1.2 miles with 700 ft of gain up to Sourdough Gap, we used our micro spikes on this icy trail today.










From Sourdough Gap looking Southeast: Mt Adams in the distance and Sheep Lake below.

 From Sourdough Gap looking north along the PCT and the junction with the Crystal Lakes Trail, which enters into Mt Rainier National Park. We continued hiking about 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile. Other hikers had broken trail here over the weekend, but the wind had blown snow over about 100 ft of this trail, that we broke new trail on.

 View of Mt Rainier, Crystal Peak and Upper Crystal Lake












a bit further down the trail, wide angle photo to show the cirque Upper Crystal Lake sits in

 We continued a short ways along the trail for a view of Three Way Peak, which has a hole in the rock up near the top on the right side.

 Returning back along the Crystal Lakes Trail

 We found a nice rock cropping to sit, enjoy the views and take a lunch break.

 Trail heading back to the PCT and Sourdough Gap











Pano of Sheep Lake with Chinook Peak to the west

was surprised to see some pasqueflower seed heads along the trail today.