Carter and Madcap Falls

 The gate up to Paradise (Mt Rainier NP) stayed closed today, so from Longmire we hiked up to Carter and Madcap Falls along the Wonderland Trail. We went a bit beyond the waterfalls for an overall hike of 6.5 miles rt with 1,200' gain. We ended up carrying our snowshoes and using our micro spikes.
Sun providing a golden light through the trees in the morning.

 This section of the Wonderland Trail is mostly in the forest, here we had a view between the trees of the Nisqually River and Eagle Peak.

Further up the trail, we could look down the Nisqually River and in the far distance see High Rock with the fire lookout on top.

Near Cougar Rock Campground, the trail crosses over the Nisqually River. Nice view of Mt Rainier here.

Log bridge over the Nisqually River

View of Mt Rainier from the log bridge

As the Wonderland Trail starts to follow up along the Paradise River, we had a couple of views looking up at Eagle Peak.

Carter Falls

Madcap Falls

View of Paradise River a bit further upstream.

Clouds were gathering over Mt Rainier as we were returning down the trail