We drove up to Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Summerland (8 miles round trip with 2,000 ft gain) and hiked a bit further to the tarn about a mile before Panhandle Gap, our hike was about 10 miles round trip with 2,500 ft of gain. This is a small portion of the Wonderland Trail. Beautiful day with abundant wildflowers in bloom.
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The first couple of miles are mostly in the forest, there are a couple of small streams crossing under and over the trail.
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One of the short open areas was lined with lupine.
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Log bridge over Frying Pan Creek
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Shortly after crossing Frying Pan Creek, the trail goes through open fields of wildflowers.
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As the trail gently turns, we began to get views of Mt Rainier.
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Wonderful array of wildflowers in bloom.
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Red paintbrush hads a bright color to the mix.
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The trail then turns south and climbs in a series of switchbacks . There were still a few small fields of avalanche lilies in bloom.
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The last several switchbacks were through an open field full of color!!!
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View of Mt Rainier at the beginning of Summerland
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I love all the wildflowers along Frying Pan Creek on the south end of Summerland.
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lots of heather in bloom
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Here we saw red paintbrush sprinkled in with lots of lousewort.
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beautiful color of lupine mixed in the heather
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We then continued up the Wonderland Trail for another mile.
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The trail then goes through rocks, boulders and scree. Here we saw a marmot perched on the rocks above us.
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Marmot viewed from the other side as the trail wound its way around his perch.
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There are wildflowers blooming high up the mountain abound all these rocks. In the distance, Frying Pan Creek descending in a couple of waterfalls.
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A low log bridge crosses Frying Pan Creek, giving us access to icy cold snow melt water, we were happy to cool off on this hot day.
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Tarn viewed from the north end (Panhadle Gap is towards the left side).
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Tarn viewed from the south end.
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We then hiked back the way we came, enjoying again the wonderful views and wildflowers along the way for a second time.
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Before crossing Frying Pan Creek on our way back though Summerland
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Another mountain view at Summerland
some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today:
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