We drove up to the Comet Falls Trailhead at Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Mildred Point, about 7 miles roundtrip with 2,600 ft of overall gain. We saw a nice variety of wildflowers, most soggy from the recent rains, many fungi and assorted berries.
There were ripe red huckleberries at the beginning of the trail.
The trail soon crosses a large wooden bridge over Van Trump Creek, view looking upstream from the bridge
view downstream from the bridge.
As the trail steadily goes uphill through the forest, there area places to view Van Trump Creek.
The trail passes through a few talus fields.
Soon we have our first view of Comet Falls and views as we continue up the trail.
Lots of arnica growing across from the falls.
We also saw lots of ripe huckleberries along the upper part of the trail today, they are delicious!
We continued up the Comet Falls Trail to the Van Trump Trail heading towards Mildred Point. On the way down to the crossing of Van Trump Creek we could see a herd of mountain goats up in the meadows. (zoom)
Log bridge over the West Fork of Van Trump Creek above Comet Falls
View upstream of Upper Comet Falls
There were wildflowers and moss growing along the creek,
including small monkeyflowers.
Further along the trail, we saw where West Fork Van Trump Creek drops down into Comet Falls (unable to see here below the drop off) with some views of Tatoosh Peaks in the distance.
We saw lots of gentian along the trail and in the meadows. 
From the turn off of the Van Trump Trail up it is a steep 0.5 miles to Mildred Point.
We saw lots of goat hair snagged on flowers and grass here.
Looking back down the trail for a cloudy view of Tatoosh Peaks to the south.
View from the trail to the west.
A lovely field of lupine
The end of the "maintained trail"
View from just beyond the sign, the top of Rainier is in the clouds, Kautz Creek Falls in the distance.
We took a boot path around to the right for more views and a lunch break.
We occasionally had some glimpses of the top of Mt Rainier.
To the northwest, we again saw the herd of mountain goats (zoom).
As we finished our lunch break it was getting more cloudy, so we headed back down the trail.
I was glad we were off the steepest sections of the trail as the fog rolled in.
Douglas ground squirrel sitting on the rocks near the creek.
Lovely lichen hanging from the trees.some of the wildflowers, berries and fungi we saw along the trail today:
No comments:
Post a Comment