We drove up to Mt Rainier National Park to hike the Crystal Peak Trail on Highway 410. This was 8 miles round trip with 3,100 ft of elevation gain. We saw about 15 people along the trail today. The first 2.5 or so miles of the trail is in the forest. The trail starts by crossing a stream on a log bridge.
About 0.8 miles up the trail, there is a short spur trail off a switchback that leads to a view of Mt Rainier before continuing up.
About 2 miles from the trailhead, the trail crosses on another log bridge over a creek.
The trail continues along the side of a hill in the forest with a couple of nice views of Mt Rainier and the White River.
Eventually, the views are continuously in view. We watched the clouds begin to gather around Mt Rainier.
Paintbrush along the side of the trail.
Soon the mountain was almost completely covered in clouds.
Near the top of the trail, we could see down to Lower Crystal Lake to the west.
View of Mt Rainier to the south from the top of Crystal Peak
View to the north with Upper Crystal Lake in the distance.
Along with the wildflowers we saw many butterflies today.some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today:
No comments:
Post a Comment