Snow Lake

My original post seems to have disappeared, fortunately I still have the photos from this hike up to Snow Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, starting from Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass. We hike up to the lake and around to the outlet, before returning. Overall our hike was about 7.5 miles round trip with 1,800 ft of overall gain. We saw a few waterfalls along the way.

Hoar frost covered part of the trail.

Another partially frozen waterfall

The nearby peaks going up the switchbacks were covered in clouds.

Lots of large icicles along the switchbacks and some frosty trees

Portions of the trail were very frozen, we wore our microspikes.

View of Snow Lake along the switchbacks going down to the lake

Part of the trail was snow covered boulders crossing this stream.

Views looking across Snow Lake as we continued along the trail

Very frozen trail heading down to the log bridge across the outlet

View next to the log bridge over the outlet, we decided to turn around here today.

icicles hanging off a log over the lake (zoom)

icicles hanging from tree branches at the edge of the lake (zoom)

some snowy peaks north of Snow Lake seen from the trail

View as seen from the snow covered boulder crossing as we returned

We took the side trail down to the lake shore.

There were some icicles hanging from large rocks at the edge of the lake.

Ice covering the edge of the lake

Swirl patterns in the ice over the creek

View from the boulders above the lake back up at the pass. We had our lunch break near here.

There were some obnoxious gray jays harassing us as we ate our lunch. Unfortunately, the cute pica was too fast for me to get a photo as it ran around the boulders near here.

Returning down the switchbacks,

the nearby peaks were cloud covered in a different way as seen on our way back.

 

Radnor Lake State Park

We stopped at Radnor Lake State Park south of Nashville Tennessee to walk around the lake. We combined several trails to make a 3 mile loop. We parked at the East entrance and walked clockwise around the lake.

Some views of Radnor Lake:

Turtles on the downed branch in the lake

View from the west end of the lake, there were groups of waterfowl in the lake

Some of these ducks had their heads down in the water and their tails up in the air.

More turtles

We saw quite a few deer, they blended in among the tree trunks, we also saw a buck snort leaping and running while snorting!

 

Mount Townsend

We drove up to the Upper Mt Townsend Trailhead in the northeast Olympics to hike up to Mount Townsend today, overall we hiked 9 miles round trip with 3.000 ft of gain. The trail enters the Buckhorn Wilderness about 0.8 mile. We started hiking in snow about 1/2 way up the trail.

Snowy peak seen through the trees.

As we gained elevation, we could see Glacier Peak to the east across Hood Canal and Puget Sound.

zoom of Glacier Peak

Wider view a short way up the trail.

Further up the trail we could see Mt Rainier to the southeast.

zoom of Mt Rainier

And further up the switchbacks, we could see Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan to the northeast.

zoom of Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan

Olympic Peaks to the west from the saddle of Mount Townsend.

Wind sculpted snow above the saddle.

Some of the trail going up to and along the top of Mount Townsend was bare of snow. Mount Townsend peak in the distance.

View to the southeast

view to the west

Final stretch to the top of Mount Townsend 

Looking south towards Mount Constance and other Olympic Peaks

Views from the summit looking eastward:

View to the north and the peak on the northland of Mount Townsend

distant view of Mt Rainier along the top of Mount Townsend

distant view of Mt Baker and Glacier Peak

view to the west

view to the southwest

From the north peak, looking northeast towards the Canadian mountain peaks and

to the northwest towards Vancouver Island.

Looking back to the peak of Mount Townsend to the south. We took the trail along the west below the summit on our way back.

For a while, we were only following deer tracks.

Another look to the south from above the saddle. including The Brothers and Mount Constance in the distance.

Views to the east

some lovely lichen on a tree as we continue down the trail in the woods

Welsh Peak