Glacier View Peak

 We drove up to the Glacier View Wilderness to hike to the summit of Glacier View a 4.5 mile round trip hike with and overall elevation gain of 1,000 ft. We saw some lingering wildflowers, fungi and ripe huckleberries along with great views.
The trailhead is located along FR 59 a little west of Mt Rainier National Park. As the road gets closer to the trailhead, a bend in the road reveals this marvelous view of Mt Rainier.

 From the trailhead, it is a short hike up to the trail, go left to Glacier View, right to Beljica Meadows, Goat Lake and Gobblers Knob.

 This hike is in the forest, there were a couple of places where glimpses of Mt Rainier could be seen through the trees. We were hoping the clouds would not cover Mt Rainier before we reached the summit of Glacier View.

 We saw quite a few fungi emerging from the forest floor, and these large fungi growing on a huge log.













We found both ripe red and blue huckleberries

The trail goes past a few open fields where we found wildflowers in bloom.

 quite a bit of paintbrush

 another open field

 After 2 miles the spur trail on the left goes up Glacier View

 The spur trail is about 0.25 mile
We could see Mt Rainier as we went up the trail

 There is a nice long ridge on the top of Glaier View, site of a former fire lookout












Gorgeous view of the west side of Mt Rainier,
we could see the areas we backpacked along part of the Wonderland Trail two weeks ago.









Pano from the summit of Glacier View to the west: Mt Rainier, and in the far distance the Goat Rocks and Mt Adams. On the right Gobblers Knob and Mt Wow

Pano from the summit of Glacier View to the east: 

In the far distance Mt St Helens, clouds over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mts.

 zoom of Mt Adams

 zoom of Mt St Helens













zoom of Gobblers Knob with lookout tower and Mt Wow

zoom of Mt Rainier: here we could see the Mowich, Puyallup and Tahoma Glaciers.

We watched the clouds start to descend over Mt Rainier and headed back to the trailhead. We were fortunate to reach the car before the afternoon rain started.

some of the wildflowers and fungi we saw along the trail today: