Crystal Peak Fall Hike

We headed up to Mt Rainier National Park on Hwy 410 today to hike up to Crystal Peak. This is a 7.6 mile round trip hike with 3,000 ft of elevation gain. The hike starts in the forest and at 1.5 miles the trail to Crystal Peak heads to the right and the trail to Crystal Lakes continues straight. There are a couple of log bridges along the trail.

We saw a pika in the avalanche chute, but he was too fast for me to take a photo.

 

 We were able to see the lower glaciers on Mt Rainier as we started our hike, through the trees. The snow level as come down quite a bit during the last two days.











As the trail climbed, we started to see some fall colors.

 We also had a good view of the White River Valley as the clouds opened up.

 More fall colors as we climb towards the peak.

 Although this trail gains 3,000 ft in 3. 8miles, it doesn't seem really steep until near the very end of the trail.

 We found ice on the end of some of the tree branches near the peak,













along with some ice on the ground.

Some views of the valley below between clouds.

The wind was icy on top, so we added some warm layers before eating our lunch.

Between cloud covers, I was able to see Lower Crystal Lake below. There were too many clouds to see Upper Crystal Lake or Sourdough Gap to the north today.

 As the clouds raced above, we occasionally caught glimpses of the lower glaciers of Mt Rainier.

On the way back down, we saw an old wasp nest along the trail that hadn't been there on the hike up.

Some of the plants and fall colors we saw on the hike today.