Railroad Grade

We drove out to the Park Butte Trailhead south of Mount Baker to hike up the Railroad Grade Trail towards Sandy Camp. This was about 8 miles round trip with 2,400 ft of gain. The first 2.4 miles are along the Park Butte Trail in the forest.

We found lots of ripe huckleberries along the trail, yum!

As we crossed the wooden bridge over Sulphur Creek, we noticed this section was along the Pacific Northwest Trail.

view of Sulphur Creek from the bridge with my and the bridge's shadow

small pond near the trail in the meadow

sneak peak of Mt Baker along the trail through the meadow

We had to do some rock hopping in a couple of places before we could reach the bridge over Rocky Creek.

view of Rocky Creek from the ladder bridge

View of Mt Baker after we left the Park Butte Trail for Railroad Grade Trail

Steps up through the meadow

Looking across the meadow to Park Butte with the lookout on top

The Railroad Grade Trail goes up on the edge of a large Lorraine, view to the south

zoom of Glacier Peak in the distance

We had great views of Mt Baker as we headed up along the Lorraine.

zoom of Mt Baker

zoom of a waterfall on the creek in the Lorraine

It was beautiful hiking up with Mt Baker and the Easton Glacier in front of us.

Throughout the day we met both parties that had successfully climbed Mt Baker and those heading up to climb Mt Baker.

view of the Twin Sisters Range to the west

Getting closer to Sandy Camp

We didn't see many wildflowers today, but here was a nice patch of fireweed in bloom.

We found a nice dirt spot along the side of the trail overlooking Sandy Camp and Easton Glacier, a great place for a lunch break.

Pano of Mt Baker and the Easton Glacier

As we headed back down the trail, I kept turning around to enjoy the views of Mt Baker.

We decided to take a short detour through the camp sites at a lower camp before going back up on Railroad Grade, there was some nice heather in bloom here.

We also had a great view of a large section of the Railroad Grade Trail to the south of us.

Another look back after we rejoin the Railroad Grade Trail

south of the Railroad Grade Trail

Back in the meadow, we had a nice view of Mt Baker and the raised Railroad Grade Trail.

Rocky Creek seemed a little fuller on our way back down the trail.

some of the wildflowers and fungi we saw along the trail today: