Rampart Ridge Snowshoe on Mt Rainier

 Today, we headed up to Longmire on Mt Rainier to snowshoe the Rampart Ridge trail. This is a 5 1/2 mile hike with 1200 ft of elevation gain.  From the parking lot at Longmire we walked across the road to the Trail of Shadows, this time we went right (counter clockwise) on the Trail of Shadows Trail. The small pool of water near the trail was bubbling from natural springs below!
We didn't need to put on our snowshoes for the first part of the hike.

 This spring also had bubbling hot water.

 Along this side of the trail we also saw a replica of an early homestead cabin,

and this pretty stream.

 We were the first ones to head up the Rampart Ridge Trail since last nights' storm, fresh trail. We hiked up about 1/2 mile before the snow was deep enough to put on our snowshoes.

No views of the Mountain or valley below today, but lots of beautiful snow covered trees.

We found the sign still visible where our trail joins the Wonderland Trail.

Beautiful snowshoe trip in the woods (no danger of avalanches along this trail)!

Many soothing water running scenes to enjoy today.

There is a large downed tree near the bottom of the ridge. We choose to take off our snowshoes to climb over. And were able to hike the rest of the loop trail back to Longmire in our boots.