Mosier Plateau

We drove to Mosier to hike the Mosier Plateau Trail, this was 3 miles round trip with 640 ft of overall gain from where we parked down the road. Lovely views and lots of balsamroot in bloom along with other wildflowers. We also saw a skink on the trail today. Balsamroot and view

Mosier Creek Falls and the trail going along Mosier Creek

Views along the trail, lots of balsamroot and overlookig the Columbia River

skink

Some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today

Keechelus Lake

We walked down to Keechelus Lake from Hyak this morning. The water level in the lake is much higher compared to when we were here in December. Beautiful day, 2 miles round trip with minimal snow. Views at Keechelus Lake where the water has come up over the road looking eastward

view to the northwest, second photo is a zoom of Chikamin Peaks

As we neared Hyak on our way back, we could see Denny Mountain (zoom)

and Snoqualmie Mountain with Deeny Peak (zoom) in the distance to the west

Paradise Mt Rainier National Park

We drove up to Paradise today on a beautiful day to hike part way up the Glacier Vista Trail enjoying the views, overall 2 miles round trip with 680 ft of gain. We were surprisded that there were not very many people here this morning. The snow was were consolated in the morning and we hiked with micro spkikes on and did not post hole. Views of Mt Rainier alonf our route this morning.

Various views of the Tatoosh Peaks

< Pano of the Tatoosh Peaks with the Goat Rocks, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens in the distance

zoom photos of Old Snowy, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Today we drove to the Nisqually National Wildflife Refuge near Lacey. We walked along the Twin Barns Loop Trail with a side trip along the Nisqually Estuary Boardwalk Trail and back, overall a beautiful trail with nice sitings of wildlife, 4.6 miles overall.

We went counterclockwise on the Twin Barns Loop Trail, stopping at the Riparian Forest Overlook and the Nisqually River Overlook, views along this section

Along the Nisqually Estuary Trail towards the boardwalk, we had a nice view of some Olympic Peaks across Puget Sound

Views along the Boardwalk over the estuary

zoom of Mt Rainier above and below

Great blue heron and seals seen from the boardwalk

view near the Twin Barns

mallards and a beaver swimming in the freshwater wetlands as we finished the Twin Barns Loop Trail