Reflection Lakes and Mazama Ridge Snowshoe

Drove up to Mt Rainier National Park to go snowshoeing today. I was hoping to do a loop, by hiking from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes, up Mazama Ridge, over to Paradise and back down to Narada Falls. When I reached the point of having to break trail while post holing 12" with snowshoes for at least 3/4 of a mile uphill by myself, I decided to turn back to ensure I would reach Longmire before they locked the gate at 5pm.  Overall, I hiked 5 miles with 1,200 ft of gain.

View of Lane Peak from above Narada Falls, as I started out from the parking area at Narada Falls.

Start of the marked trail up towards Reflection Lakes. There is a lot more snow since I was here 6 weeks ago.

Even with some fresh snow from last night, the route from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes was well packed down.

I opted to go to Reflection Lakes via Inspiration Point. Along the closed Stevens Canyon Road, I had a fabulous view of the western Tatoosh Peaks.

Mt Rainier from near Inspiration Point

The route via Inspiration Point goes by two avalanche slopes. I was comfortable going this way in the morning before the sun hit this side of the slope, as the temperature was in the 20s and the avalanche risk was moderate below tree line today.

closer look at Eagle and Chutla Peaks in the Tatoosh Range

A look back at Mt Rainier as I continued beyond Inspiration Point.

I was the first person to Reflection Lakes this morning, but I saw some critter had beat me out on the packed trail earlier this morning.

Sun shining behind Pinnacle Peak before it was covered in clouds.

First view of Reflection Lake

Mt Rainier across Reflection Lake, once I left the packed down trail, I was post holing at least 12" in fresh snow.

From Reflection Lakes, I headed up the trail via Inspiration Saddle.

At Inspiration Saddle, I could glimpse Mt Rainier through the trees. Here, I headed east up the High Lakes Trail. From here the route is not marked.

I was happy to see that the route had been broken the day before by another snowshoer. I was hoping they had gone all the way to the junction of the 4th Crossing Trail, but they only went about 1 mile before turning back.

It was so quiet and peaceful on Mazama Ridge, I was up here by myself, until I passed two other snowshoers as I was coming back down. I could see the clouds had almost completely covered Mt Rainier.

I enjoyed watching the clouds moving across the landscape.

icicles on tree branches

clouds covering Mazama Ridge

sun trying to break through the clouds

Pinnacle Peak being surrounded by clouds

clouds on Mazama Ridge

enjoying the beautiful snowy Mazama Ridge

Instead of trying to break trail in deep snow by myself, I turned back and stopped at a viewpoint along Mazama Ridge for a break. I was able to see the top of Mt Rainier through the clouds for a brief moment.

Heading back down Mazama Ridge into the clouds.

Before the last section of trail back to Narada Falls, I stopped to view the Paradise River above Ruby Falls.

The marked trail from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes, does not go near Ruby Falls, so I broke trail to get a view of Ruby Falls.

Ruby Falls

I took the short trail down to Narada Falls before leaving.

 

Mt Catherine Loop Snowshoe

We drove up to The Summit East at Hyak (Snoqualmie Pass) to do the Mt Catherine Loop on The Summit at Snoqualmie Nordic Trail System. From where we parked, this was a 10 mile loop with 1,700 ft of gain. We saw many people hiking up and skiing down the ski slopes at Hyak, but did not encounter hardly anyone on the loop trail. We met the groomer early on, who told us he was mainly moving the trail signs, and one nordic skier after we had gone 2/3 of the way around the loop. The majority of this "trail" is in the forest, but there were several areas with nice mountain views.

We opted to go clockwise around the loop, which is about 5 miles up the closed Cold Creek Forest Road. We stayed off on the far edges of the groomed trails.

Before long we had this brief view of Keechelus Lake before returning into the forest.

Overall, we passed 3 areas where there was a risk of avalanches. With the avalanche forecast of low today, we were not too concerned.

It was lovely to see the fresh snow on the trees and trail from last night's snow.

View looking up at Mt Catherine as we went around the loop.

The clouds moved all around the peaks throughout the day. Here we had a nice view of a nearby ridge as we continued up Cold Creek Road. For a mostly cloudy day, we had nice views.

icicles hanging off small branches by a tiny creek

Tinkham Peak to the east

About halfway around the loop and after 1,300 ft of gain, we reached Windy Pass on the PCT.

After Windy Pass, the Mt Catherine Loop continues on the Ripsaw Trail, along here, we had our first view of Granite Mountain to the northwest.

Here, I think we are looking up towards Silver Peak to the west.

Part way down the Ripsaw Trail, we took the Vista Trail option, which runs roughly parallel to Ripsaw for 0.9 mile. This had not been groomed since the snow last night, so we broke trail off on the side.

We found a nice spot out of the wind to take a lunch break. We could see some peaks across Snoqualmie Pass through the clouds. We hope to redo this loop on a clear day.

More peaks, these are to the north across Snoqualmie Pass.

Olallie Creek

View to the west: McClellan Butte, Bandera Mtn and Mt Defiance (and maybe Pratt Mtn)

zoom of McClellan Butte

more peaks to the north, including Snoqualmie Mtn and Guye Peak

more icicles

Another view to the north as the loop meanders along

We had a closer view of Granite Mtn, and could see the fire lookout on the top.

zoom of another peak to the north

This side of the loop had so many mountain views! Soon after this, the trail began to climb up about 400 ft to Grand junction.

After Grand junction, the Mt Catherine Loop follow the Outer Loop to Creek Run back down to Hyak. We looked for and followed the signs that said Easiest Way Down.

more views to the north

continuing down the Easiest Way

As we neared Hyak, we could see across to the north of Kendall Peaks and Rampart Ridge.

Back at Hyak, we enjoyed this loop today!!!