Owyhigh Lakes via East Side Trail

We drove down Hwy 123 on the east side of Mt Rainier to hike up to Owyhigh Lakes, on this less used trail. We hiked about 10.5 miles with an overall elevation gain of 2,650 ft.
The parking area is on the east side of Hwy 123, the trail on the west side. A short 0.4 miles takes you  about 300 ft down to the East Side Trail.







Approximately 0.2 miles down this connector trail, you can see Deer Creek Falls (62 ft drop)

When the connector trail joins the East Side Trail, we headed right going north on the East Side Trail for a very short distance (0.1 mile), along the way, the trail crosses both Deer Creek and















Chinook Creek on nice wooded bridges.





The Owyhigh Lakes Trail then splits off to the left, while the East Side Trails continues to the right.

Before long, the trail crosses Boundary Creek on a log bridge.

The trail continues to gain elevation wandering through the forest. About 1/2 mile up from Boundary Creek, we could hear the rush of a waterfall, but could barely see it through the thick forest. Further upstream, we could see the very top of this waterfall.

The trail continues going up in a series of switchbacks, alternating with more gentle inclines. There are many short wood crossings and small creeks, filled with water this time of year as there is lots of snow melt.

One of many small streams along the way cascading down the hillside.

This creek emerges out from under rocks, with no sign of the creek further up the hillside.

















Further up, along Kolsuck Creek, we could hear another waterfall, and by following a short boot path, we had a partial look at these falls.

The trail then passes through several meadows between forested sections. This one lined the trail with avalanche lilies.

Another meadow had many glacier lilies.
Some of the meadows at 5,000 ft and above had very few blossoms, but we could see that there were many plants that would fill the meadows with color in a few weeks.

Our first look at Owyhigh Lakes.













We continued along the trail, finding a good boulder to sit on a short ways off trail to eat our lunch and watch the clouds move among the peaks.

We had some nice views of Governors Ridge and Barrier Peak.

A last look at the Owyhigh Lakes Basin as we hiked back down the trail.

Back at the meadow south of the lakes, we began to see Tamanos Mountain underneath the clouds.












Some of the many wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trail along with some other flora: