Tolmie Peak

With the air quality at "good" and cooler temperatures on the west side of Mt Rainier National Park, we drove up to Mowich Lake in the morning to hike up to Tolmie Peak. This is a 5.6 mile round trip with an overall gain of 1,400 ft. The trail starts in the forest, joining the Wonderland Trail for one mile on the west side of Mowich Lake. Through the trees we caught an occassional glimpse of Mt Rainier reflecting in Mowich Lake. 

We saw a few wildflower and plenty of ripe blueberries to enjoy as we hiked through the forest. The spur trail to Eunice Lake and Tolmie Peak begins just before Ipsut Pass. The trail losses a couple of hundred feet in elevation before gaining 500 ft on the way to Eunice Lake.

From Eunice Lake, we could see the fire lookout high up on Tolmie Peak.

The trail gains another 500 ft going up Tolmie Peak, we had some nice views of Mt Rainier and Eunice Lake along the switchback portion of the trail.

Besides Mt Rainier, we had a clear view all the way to Mt St Helens to the southwest.

zoom of Mt St Helens

View of Mt Rainier and Eunice Lake from Tolmie Peak

View of Mt Rainier through the windows of the fire lookout

View from the fire lookout on Tolmie Peak

Far to the northeast, above some distant ridges, we could see Mount Stuart and some of the Enchantment Peaks (zoom)

Coming down from Tolmie Peak, we followed a short boot path. Most of the views to the west were still hazy, but to the far northeast, we could see Glacier Peak.

zoom of a very hazy Glacier Peak

We also had a view of Mt Rainier above the trees.

We took our time heading back down to Eunice Lake. We had see very few people on our way up to and at Tolmie Peak, but more hikers were out enjoying the day as we hiked down.

We took a break along the shore at Eunice Lake

There was a nice breeze as we hiked out. This time, instead of a reflection of Mt Rainier, we saw the top of the mountain through the trees as the trail went along Mowich Lake.

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today: