Tamanos Mountain Saddle

We drove up to the Owyhigh Lakes Trailhead at Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to the saddle of Tamanos Mountain. Our route was 9.3 miles round trip with 2,550 ft of gain. The trail was very quiet today, we saw 3 people on our way up and 2 more on our hike down, plus one bear. View of Owyhigh Lakes on our way to Tamanos Mountain. 

Most of this trail is in the woods on a lovely, well maintained trail. There is a gain of about 1,000 ft in the first 2 miles. Then a gentle 400+ ft in the next 1.5 miles.

We only saw a few wildflowers in this section of the trail, but may mushrooms were emerging after the last couple of days of rain. We also saw a couple of streams with water in them.

After passing the side trail to Tamanos Creek Camp, the trail soon enters a meadow.

View towards Governors Ridge and the Owyhigh Lakes

View towards Owyhigh Mountain 

Owyhigh Lakes below Governors Ridge

The most prominent wildflower was the cascade asters.

After the lashes, the trail goes through some woods and a couple of meadows

We saw some bear scat filled with berries on the trail.

A boot track leaves the Owyhigh Trail and initially heads west in the direction of the Cowlitz Chimneys. The trail does not stay flat for long, it soon gains 900+ ft in 0.6 miles.

We found lots of ripe huckleberries going up the steep slope.

There were also wildflowers in the meadows.

Where the trail takes a sharp turn towards t the left, we saw a bear grazing in the distance.

zoom of bear grazing in the meadow

As we continued walking up the steep narrow trail, the bear started walking towards us. (zoom)

The bear did not respond to our yelling "Hey Bear!" or our singing loudly, We stepped up on a large boulder to appear bigger, the bear kept coming. (zoom)

When the bear was about 20 yards from us, he turned slightly, crossed the trail and went slightly down hill. (zoom)

Not wanting to turn our backs to the bear, we continued to watch him graze until went down out of sight.

There were lots of cascade asters and paintbrush in the meadow on the side of Tamanos Mountain.

View of Cowlitz Chimneys behind us as we continued up.

I kept stopping to look behind to make sure the bear wasn't following us and to enjoy the views.

zoom with the Goat Rocks and Mt Adams in the far distance to the south

hazy view of Mt Adams (zoom)

Goat Rock Peaks (zoom)

Cloudy view of Mt Rainier from the saddle of Tamanos Mountain. Instead of going to the top of Tamanos Mountain, our destination was up the rise to the south of the saddle for our lunch break.

View to the east, Governors Ridge and one of the Owyhigh Lakes

View to the southeast

View to the southwest, the Cowlitz Chimneys and Banshee Peak

The view to the north, the top of Tamanos Mountain

Far below us was a waterfall (zoom)

During our lunch break, we watched the clouds move over Mt Rainier. 

 

Enjoying the views and the wildflowers in the meadow heading down from Tamanos Mountain.

Back at Owyhigh Lakes

We appreciated the soft gentle Owyhigh Lakes Trail back to the trailhead, a chance to stretch our legs.

some of the wildflowers, berries, and fungi seen along the trail today: