High Hut

We drove up to Ashford to hike in the south district Mt Tahoma Trail Assn area up to High Hut.  The road was open to the lower SnoPark area, making our hike an 8 mile round trip with 2,400 ft of gain. The trail was well groomed and packed down, so we did not need to use our snowshoes. As we were hiking and not skiing, we stayed to the side of the groomed area hiking in single file. The area is mostly wooded, but we did have some views of Mt Rainier along the way.



We saw some rabbit tracks off to the side of the trail.

 The views start to open up as we neared the summit.












We could see the Olympic Mounts across Puget Sound to the northwest.

 Mt St Helens (and Mt Adams) to the south.












High Hut













High Hut faces Mt Rainier.













Some icicles along the roof, it was very cold today, we were glad to go inside the warm hut to eat our lunch out of the wind.















Pano looking northwest to east: Olympic Mtns and Mt Rainier.

 Pano looking west to southeast: Mt Rainier, the Goat Rocks, Mt Adams hiding behind a smaller peak and Mt St Helens

 Another look at Mt Rainier before heading back down the trail.

 We saw this small shrew in the snow as we hiked down the trail.













So lovely to be out on a sunny winter day.