Reflection Lakes Golden Gate Loop

Drove up to Reflection Lakes ar Mt Rainier National Park to do a loop hike: Reflection Lakes to Paradise, Myrtle Falls and the Golden Gate Trail, headed east on a portion of the Sklyine Trail to Mazama Ridge, then down to Far Away Rock and back to Reflection Lakes, 6.7 miles with 1,700 ft of overall gain. Gorgeous views, wilflowers still in bloom, marmots, deer, grouse and a bear. Fabulous day! Mt Rainier reflecting in one of the Reflection Lakes as I started my hike

I took the Lower Lakes Trail up to Paradise. This trail is mostly forested, but there were wildflowers, a small pond, small falls along the Paradise River, a few peekaboo views of Rainier, but no people until I was at the Paraise parking lot.

From the parking lot, I hiked passed Paradise Lodge up to Myrtle Falls, seeing a deer near the trail on the way

View of Rainier at Edith Creek (above Myrtle Falls), zoom of Rainier with a marmot on a small hill, zoom of the marmot

Views along the Golden Gate trail, where there were views of Rainier and Tatoosh Peaks, a waterfall, wildflowers, a grouse and more marmots

From the top of the Golden Gate Trail, I headed east along a portion of the Skyline Trail to Mazama Ridge. Fantastic views along the way: Rainier, Tatoosh Peaks, more wildflowers and on the eastern slope of Mazama Ridge a black bear grazing in the meadow (zoom

I then took the Mazama Ridge Trail down to Far Away Rock and continuing down to Refection Lakes. The upper portion of the trail was through open meadows before entering the forest where there were several ponds along the way.

At Far Away Rock, looking south down at Lake Louise and some of the Tatoosh Peaks, more Tatoosh Peaks to the southwest

Back at Reflection Lakes to complete my loop hike

One of many butterflies

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail