Glacier Vista and Myrtle Falls Snowshoe

Drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park today to snowshoe on this beautiful sunny day. I decided to snowshoe up to Glacier Vista and over to Myrtle Falls. Total 3.25 miles with 1,000 ft of gain. There was a decent track heading up towards Panorama Point since the last snowfall.  

Looking back towards the Tatoosh Range. 

Beautiful snow covered trees

Everyone ahead of me was heading up to Panorama Point, there was no track heading towards Glacier Vista so I starting breaking trail, with Mt Rainier in front of me the entire way. Feels so good to be out on the snow in the sun.

As I continued up to Glacier Vista, I stopped to look back towards the Tatoosh Range with Mt Adams, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens appearing behind the Tatoosh. I had this piece of Paradise to myself!

View of Mt Rainier with the Nisqually Glacier below.

As I continued upwards, I looked back to see if anyone was coming up behind me and could help break trail, but it was just me.

A frosty tree and exposed boulders that have not yet been buried in snow above 6,000'.

Panorama of the view to the south:

I continued up to 6,400' but did not take more photos, was enjoying the views and the solitude on a busy, sunny Saturday at Paradise.

Frosty tree, and in the background, skiers and snowshoers heading up to Panorama Point.

As I snowshoed back down, I could see a couple of groups who had come up behind me, but stopped further down and were now enyoying a break. I love this view on the way down from Glacier Vista!

Taking a look back at Mt Rainier and my solo tracks up to Glacier Vista.

I met many others heading up as I snowshoed down and over to Myrtle Falls. For awhile, I had this view to myself as well.

Today was beautiful with a gorgeous blue sky!

I saw some animal tracks in the snow near Myrtle Falls.

View of the Tatoosh Range as I head back to the parking area from Myrtle Falls.

Ancient Lakes

Did a loop hike at Ancient Lakes near Quincy, WA. 7 miles with about 600 ft of overall elevation gain. Parked at the lower lot on the north end. Started along the trail on the east side. Waterfall coming down the coulee. 

Large boulder along the trail near the waterfall.

One of the Ancient Lakes

Waterbirds swimming on one of the lake.

a little bit of fall color

View of the waterfalls at the south end of the coulee.

We hiked around the lake to get a closer look at the lower falls.

Hiked back to the trail and continued hiking along the lake shore, view looking back at the waterfalls.

looking west across another one of the Ancient Lakes

Beautiful tree along the trail

View overlooking the Ancient Lakes area as we hiked up to the bench.

Lots of interesting rock formations as we continued hiking up to the bench.

View up on the bench

View of Dusty Lake from a gap in the Coulee wall.

We then hiked north and up a side trail to the other gap in the Coulee Wall for this view of Dusty Lake:

Looking South at the Coulee wall from the gap: Ancient Lakes to the left, Dusty Lake to the right.

Pano from the same spot:

view looking to the north, great columnar basalt

View of Ancient Lakes from our lunch spot

Another photo overlooking Dusty Lake as the sky cleared

More fall color as we descend down from the coulee wall

lots of interesting rock formations along the trail on the west side of the Ancient Lakes coulee

 The route we hiked today:

Little Mashel Falls

Drove to Eatonville to hike to Lower and Middle Mashel Falls from the Bud Blanchard Trailhead.  This was a 3.7 mile round trip hike with 500 ft of gain. Only saw three other people as I was returning on the Bud Blanchard Trail.  The first 1.4 miles is along the Bud Blanchard Trail, it is fairly flat and does pass closely to people's homes.

The Bud Blanchard Trail soon crosses a bridge over Mashel River. view upstream

view downstream of Mashel River

The trail also goes by Smallwood Pond.

Another bridge goes over Little Mashel River, view upstream.

view downstream of the Little Mashel River from the bridge.

After 1.4 miles along the Bud Blanchard Trail, turn left on the Little Mashel Fall Trail. This trail goes uphill. Enjoyed walking through the forest.

There were occasional patches of fall color along the way.

Markers on a tree showed the spur trail to Lower Little Mashel Falls.

View of  Lower Little Mashel Falls from the trail above.

View of  Lower Little Mashel Falls from the riverside.

Spur trail going up from the lower falls.

The spur trail down to the Middle Falls is a short distance uphill from the spur trail to the Lower Falls.

View of Middle Little Mashel Falls from the trail.

The force from the spray off of Middle Little Mashel Falls was so strong, I could not get a photo in focus from in front of the falls by the riverside.

View of Middle Little Mashel Falls from off to the side.