Bench Lake and Snow Lake Fall Hike in Mt Rainier Nat'l Park

 The second hike I took today off of the Stevens Canyon Road in Mt Rainier National Park was to Bench and Snow Lakes. Lots of fall color and two beautiful lakes. This is a short 2.6 mile rt hike with 700 ft of elevation gain (probably a bit more as there is lots of ups & downs along this trail). I spent quite a bit of time walking partway around both lakes, so I might have added another 0.5 miles onto this hike.

 There is a great view of Mt Rainier from the trailhead parking area.

 The trail starts going uphill among the trees.

The trail soon goes down

 and back up again (this is repeated several times).

 Before long, Foss Peak can be seen to the southeast,

soon followed by views of Unicorn Peak.

 Here the trail skirts around a large meadow.

 Looking back to the north and Mt Rainier.

 There was so much lovely fall color along this trail.

At 0.7 miles the trail splits, to the left: Bench Lake, to the right: Snow Lake. I opted to go to Snow Lake first.

0.5 mile later, the trail splits again, to the left: Snow Lake Camp, to the right: the south end of Snow Lake, and at the end of the "maintained trail" there is a boot track that goes over a large rock slide area to

a small tarn to the south of Snow Lake.

View of Snow Lake from the south shore.

 I continued back to take the side trail to Snow Lake Camp and found a quite spot on the shore to sit, eat my lunch and enjoy the view. Near the north ed of Snow Lake, looking south towards Unicorn Peak (part of the Tatoosh Range).

 Then I returned along the trail, taking the short, steep path down to Bench Lake. Gorgeous view and reflection of Mt Rainier at Bench Lake.

 The water level in the lake was low enough, that I could walk most of the way around the lake. Looking back toward Foss Peak,

 and toward Unicorn Peak.













I was able to hike clear around to a pond (?) at the far end of Bench Lake. It was a bit muddy along this shore, and I saw large elk prints,

 a butterfly,

 and many large frogs here.

 Back on the main trail there is a large boulder where you can look down on the pond (?) at the far end of Bench Lake. Bench Lake is hidden by the trees to the right.

 this section of the trail also had a partial view of Mt Rainier.

 I continued to enjoy the fall colors on the hike back.

 along with some views of Mt Rainier.


















Final view of the mountain before reaching the trailhead.

More fall color seen on this trail today: