Hex Mountain Snowshoe

 We drove out to Cle Elum Lake to hike up to Hex Mountain on the winter route, 7 miles round trip with 2,600 ft of gain.
 We parked at the road turnout just past the Ronald Fire Station and walked a short ways along SR 903 heading up FS 116 (the first road on the right after crossing Newport Creek).
The road was bare of snow until just after the closed gate. We opted to wear snowshoes after reports of hikers post holing the past few days.

 Follow FS 116 up for 1.7 miles to the Hex Mountain trailhead sign. The way was mostly snow covered with a few bare patches along the way.

 In the early morning the snow was hard packed and icy.

 The Hex Mountain trailhead.













View of Cle Elum Lake a short distance beyond the Hex Mountain trailhead along FS 116

 The trail climbs more steeply after the trailhead sign. The route follows a ridge up to Hex Mountain











If there aren't previous tracks to follow, it can be difficult to see the trail drops behind a large rock outcropping before continuing up Hex Mountain.











Pano view of Cle Elum Lake a short ways up the ridge:

 After a while, the ridge takes a sharp turn to the east, continuing through a burnt forest

The last section up to the top of Hex Mountain is steep, and was icy this morning. You can see lots of post holing.

Pano from the top of Hex Mountain lookin north to east:

 Pano from the top of Hex Mountain lookin east to southwest:

 View to the west looking back down off of Hex Mountain

 As we were descending, Mount Stuart came out from behind the clouds momentarily.

 View of the inlet to Cle Elum Lake as we continued down the trail











The views of Cle Elum Lake and the surrounding hills are beautiful as we continue down the ridge.

SnowBowl Hut

 With the avalanche risk at Considerable today, we opted to snowshoe to SnowBowl Hut in the Mount Tahoma Trail Association South District. The road was 99+% snow/ice free to the lower SnoPark.  From here it is an 8 mile round trip with about 2,000 ft of gain.
The closed road/trail was 100% covered in snow from the closed gate up to SnowBowl Hut. The snow was soft and slushy, especially in the afternoon, so we opted to snowshoe instead of occasionally post holing.

 The saddle on the way up to SnowBowl Hut

 View looking back from the saddle

 Looking over to the Gazebo at SnowBowl Hut

 Our first good view of Mt Rainier on the last section up to SnowBowl Hut

 Heading up to SnowBowl Hut. We followed the safety instructions and snowshoed single file at the far side of the groomed trail











Informational sign near SnowBowl Hut

Pano from alongside SnowBowl Hut: Mt Rainier, Goat Rocks, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens

 zoom of Mt Adams













zoom of Mt St Helens

It was such a lovely warm day, we opted to stay outside and enjoy our lunch break sitting on the deck around the Gazebo

zoom of Mt Rainier from the Gazebo deck












beautiful view as we hiked down from SnowBowl Hut

Rattlesnake Ledge Equinox Super Moon hike

Hiked up to Rattlesnake Ledge in North Bend on the first day of Spring to enjoy the sunset and moonrise of the Supermoon Worm Moon. This is a 4 mile round trip hike with 1,160 ft of elevation gain. When going for a late hike it's important to park in the overflow parking lot outside of the gate so you don't find you are unable to drive out after your hike.
Pano of Rattlesnake Mountain and Rattlesnake Lake before the hike:

The hike is mostly in the forest, the trail is easy to follow. There was minimal snow on the trail today.















View of Rattlesnake Lake from Rattlesnake Ledge:

 Sunset views to the northwest over North Bend

 Sunset view looking North

 Moonrise from Rattlesnake Ledge

Glacier Vista and Nisqually Vista Snowshoe

Beautiful day today, so we headed up to Paradise at Mt Rainier NP for a leisurely snowshoe. We went up to Glacier Vista, then came down and went over to do the Nisqually Vista Trail. So glad we did both, it was fun to see Mt Rainier and the Nisqually Glacier from two different viewpoints. We did about 3.7 miles with 1,000 ft of gain. The red marking on the map was our approximate route today. 

Some people hiked up to Panorama Point with just boots, but as we weren't staying on others tracks, we used our snowshoes and would have been post holing at times without them today.

 Mt Rainier as we headed up!

 Mt Rainier and the Nisqually Glacier from Glacier Vista (this is a little over a mile and about 900' gain from the parking area)











Pano from Glacier Vista to the south: Goat Rocks, Mt Adams, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens behind the Tatoosh.

 Far below is the road bridge over the Nisqually that we drove over on our way up to Paradise this morning.

 Looking back toward Rainier and some wind swept cornices as we were hiking down towards Deadhorse Creek Basin










Hiking down along the wind swept cornices

 I didn't notice this snow terrace when I was here a couple of weeks ago. Love seeing how the wind and snow created different formations.

 Rainier from down in the Deadhorse Creek Basin

 View of the Tatoosh from Deadhorse Creek Basin

 The Nisqually Vista Trail is a loop trail marked by poles in the winter. Although it is mainly in the forest,

 there are several places with nice views of Mt Rainier

 a boot track led to this glimpse of Rainier through the trees.

 Mt Rainier and the Nisqually Glacier from the Nisqually Vista viewpoint.

 another view from the viewpoint

















We choose to return to the main parking area from alongside the lower parking area. Fabulous view of the Tatoosh Range here: