Crystal Peak

 Beautiful fall day, so we drove up Hwy 410 to hike up to Crystal Peak in Mt Rainier National Park. 8 miles round trip with 3,100 ft of gain. We only saw two other hikers on this trail today.
The first 1-1/2 miles is uphill through the forest.

 About 0.8 mile from the trailhead, there is a small viewing area off one of the switchbacks with a lovely view of Mt Rainier.











At 1.5 miles from the trailhead, the trail splits in two, up to the left is the trail to Crystal Lakes, and off to the right, the trail to Crystal Peak. For a short ways the trail is nice and level before crossing the creek. After this the trail begins to climb again.

The trail crosses a talus field where we saw some pika.

 There were some snow/icy areas on the trail, mostly in the shaded areas lower on the side of Crystal Peak.

 Once we entered the open fields, we saw fabulous views of Mt Rainier and the White River as we continued up towards the peak.

 The last bit up to the top was icy.

 View of Mt Rainier from Crystal Peak (6,000 ft)

















View from the peak looking west to north: Mt Rainier and in the far distance: Mt Baker and Glacier Peak

zoom of Mt Rainier

 zoom to the south of Mt Adams and Mt Hood

 zoom of Mt St Helens peeking over a ridge on Mt Rainier













Upper Crystal Lake below and to the east












We enjoyed the views as we hiked back down the trail