High Skyline Loop

Drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park to hike the High Skyline Loop Trail. Started at the lower parking area at the Deadhorse Creek Traihead and went counterclockwise towards Myrtle Falls and Mazama Ridge, overall 6 miles and 1,785 ft of gain. Lovely day, staying abouve the clouds. Early view of Mt Rainier near the trailhead

View of Mt Rainier from Myrtle Falls

Edith Creek

View of some Tatoosh Peaks and a waterfall along the trail towards Mazama Ridge

A couple of small falls along the Paradise River and view of Mt Rainier on the trail up Mazama Ridge

Squirrel on rocks before a lovely view of Mt Rainier

Crossing the Paradise River as the trail continues up from Mazama Ridge

zoom of two of the many marmots seen along the trail continuing up

Views from the high point on the High Skyline Loop Trail, Tatoosh Peaks to the south, Mt Rainier to the north

View of Mt Rainier from the Pebble Creek Trail, which bypasses Panorama Point on the way down the otherside of the loop

View of Mt Rainier from down along the Deadhorse Creek Trail

As I continued down the Deadhorse Creek Trail, I saw another marmot, a grouse and butterflies

Although most of the meadows had gone to seed, there were still some wildflowers in bloom, along with fungi and berries:

Sourdough Gap

We drove up to the PCT Trailhead Northbound at Chinook Pass this morning to hike up to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap, 6 miles and 1,100 ft gain. We heard the wildflowers were in bloom so we didn't mind that the clouds would keep the views away today. The trail was mostly snow free, some at the trailhead and some large patches in the forest below the lake. The hillside at the beginning was full of pasqueflowers and glacier lilies in bloom.

The wildflowers were covered in water droplets, some of the pasqueflowers appeared frosty. We were happy to find steerhead in bloom.

lots of paintbrush in bloom

Above one of the snow crossings in the forest below Sheep Lake, below a foggy Sheep Lake and trail views on our way up tht trail, lots of phlox in bloom

Above large snow patch on a steep slope on the other side of Sourdough Gap, since there were no views, we decided to turn around here. Below a better view of Sheep Lake as we hiked back down the trail

some of the wildflowes seen along the trail this morning