Mazama Ridge

Drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier NP to hike up to Mazama Ridge. A beautiful sunny day, the snow was well packed down, so I used micro spikes and did not need to use snowshoes. Overall 4 miles with 1,000 ft of gain. Loved seeing the pattern of runnels at the far end of Paradise Valley with the Tatoosh Range to the south.

zoom photos of runnels on Alta Vista to the west as I continued walking along the Paradise Valley Road to 4th Crossing.

view of Mt Rainier part way up Mazama Ridge

Lots of tracks up on Mazama Ridge from hikers/snowshoers from the past several days. Looking south to the Tatoosh Range, from here, I turned around and continued north along what would be part of the Paradise Glacier Trail.

I was up here by myself enjoying this view of Mt Rainier. I only saw 5 other hikers all day along this route.

View to the southeast from my favorite winter lunch spot (Mt Rainier is behind me). Interesting to see this crack on the cornice. Behind the Tatoosh are Old Snowy, Mt Adams, Mt Hood and further to the west Mt St Helens

zoom of Old Snowy in the Goat Rocks

zoom of Mt Adams

zoom of Mt Hood, which looks like a shadow of one of the Tatoosh Peaks

zoom of Mt St Helens

The runnels running down the hills make interesting patterns in the snow.

Another view of the Tatoosh Range, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens as I head back to Mazama Ridge

Looking back at Mt Rainier and Little Tahoma

Continuing down to Mazama Ridge, love hiking into the views of the Tatoosh

View from the east side of Mazama Ridge

I spy someone's snow cave

entrance to the snow cave

snow cave with a view of Mt Rainier up on Mazama Ridge

I love this framed view of Mt Rainier as I start down off of Mazama Ridge

View of the Tatoosh Range along the closed Paradise Valley Road as I near the parking area

zoom of the Castle, Pinnacle Peak and Plummer Peak

 

Kendall Knob

 We drove up to the Gold Creek Pond SnoPark at Snoqualmie Pass to hike up to Kendall Knob (same trail as Kendall Peak Lakes), 8 miles round trip with 1,800' gain. We used our micro spikes. Snowshoes weren't needed as long as we stayed on the compacted snow. The erosion of the bridge over Coal Creek at the start of the trail is greater than it was a year ago.

View of Coal Creek from the bridge looking west.

View of peaks near the pass along our hike up.

Kendal Peaks as we neared the "trail" split between Kendall Peak Lakes and Kendall Knob.

zoom of Kendall Peaks

view towards Keechelus Lake from Kendall Knob

zoom of Mt Rainier as the clouds move around

View over towards Rampart Ridge

View looking back as we begin to head back down.

view across the Pass as we hike down

zoom looking towards the west end of the Pass

Back at the beginning of the trail crossing Coal Creek looking east

 

Hurricane Hill

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park to snowshoe out to Hurricane Hill. The snow was so compact, we used micro spikes and hiked instead of using snowshoes.  6 miles round trip with 1,100 ft overall gain. Pano view from next to the Visitor Center.

zoom of Mt Olympus

View of Mount Angeles to the east

Bailey Range to the west

The rain, wind and warmer weather have melted off a lot of the recent snow pack. It was strange to see so much bare ground on Hurricane Hill.

Clouds covered Port Angels below us to the north from the top of Hurricane Hill.

Mount Angeles from the top of Hurricane Hill

Looking down at the ridge line we hiked along to reach Hurricane Hill

Looking back up at Hurricane Hill from the ridge

Views along the ridge

I love this ridge walk

 zoom to the northeast, Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan

More bare spots along the ridge

It was so nice to be far above the clouds today

Back at the start