Mount Rose

We drove out to the north end of Lake Cushmann in the southern Olympics to hike the Mount Rose Trail (5.8 miles round trip with 3,500' gain). Most of the snow had been washed away by the recent rain and there was a bit of fresh snow from last night. We saw 9 other hikers on the trail.

There was lots of water in the creeks.

There were some downed trees over the trail, most were easy to step over or get around. About 2,000' we entered the Mount Skokomish Wilderness.

We started to see some fresh snow from last night above 3,000'.

It was chilly in the morning, so we saw lots of icicles, in the moss,

on tree roots of fallen trees,

on the ends of mossy rocks,

and hanging down from boulders above us.

The water in the stream crossing wasn't difficult to cross, we were able to step on rocks and then the log across the rest of the creek.

squirrel prints in the snow

About 4,000' we saw Mt Rainier through the trees to the southeast.

zoom of Mt Rainier above the clouds

The last 200 ft up to the top of Mount Rose had most of the trail exposed, with just patches of snow. View of Lake Cushman below

Going up the official top of Mount Rose on some snowy boulders

Pano to the west from the top of Mount Rose, Lake Cushman far below. 

Clouds over the Olympic peaks to the northwest

We had a dark cloud pass over us as we were heading back down the trail.

Mt Elinor and Mt Washington to the east had patchy cloud cover

we saw a few fungi along the trail: