We drove up to Rainy Pass on Hwy 20 to hike up to Blue Lake in the morning, hoping to get a hike in before a thunderstorm moved in. This hike was 4.5 miles round trip with 1,000 ft of gain.
The trail starts out through a boggy area filled with wildflowers before entering the forest
A bit further up, the trail entered another field with wildflowers and some views up towards Libery Bell and Early Winters Spires
We saw a marmot resting on a large boulder
As the trail gained elevation, we had view of Whistler and Cutthroat Peaks to the north.
We saw a mountain goat up on a boulder near where the rock climbers path takes off from our trail
This mountain goat nicely walked around us and posed in front of this mountain view!
Another view of Liberty Bell and Early Winter Spires
Lupine and other wildflowers lined part of the trail.
Outlet from Blue Lake
There was a brief shower when we first arrived up at Blue Lake, where we were the only hikers for about 20 minutes.
As the wind moved the clouds around, we watched the color of the lake vary between blue, green and gray.
View from the east shore of Blue Lake
Back on the west shore of Blue Lake, we took the short Tarn Loop Trail, which had some nice views of Blue Lake
Blue Lake from the southwest shore
View of the tarn just before it started to hail and thunder
amazing change in color durning the storm as we headed back down the trail
The clouds continued to move around during the storm, we saw this peak to the far northwest as we hiked down.
some of the wildflowers we saw on our hike along the trail:
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