Bench Lake and Snow Lake

We did two short hikes along the Stevens Canyon Road at Mt Rainier National Park today. First, we hiked the Bench Lake/Snow Lake Trail, 2 miles round trip with about 600 feet of overall gain.

This trail goes through both meadows and forest. We found a few wildflowers in bloom and lots of ripe huckleberries

View overlooking Bench Lake, we decided not to go down to the lake, as there would be no mountain reflection in it on this cloudy day.

Beautiful blue Snow Lake

zoom of a grouse on the trail as we headed back to the trailhead

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail this morning:

Bench and Snow Lake

We drove to the Bench and Snow Lake Trailhead near Reflection Lakes, to hike to the two lakes this morning. We hiked 2.3 miles round trip with 400 ft of overall gain. View of Mt Rainier from the parking area.

View of Unicorn Peak and

Foss Peak from the trail.

Looking down at Bench Lake from the trail.

There were some peekaboo views of Mt Rainier along the trail.

Beautiful reflection of Mt Rainier in Bench Lake.

View of Unicorn Peak from the Snow Lake outlet crossing.

Wide angle view at Snow Lake

Some views of Mt Rainier as we hike back to the trailhead.

some of the wildflowers, berries and fungi seen along the trail this morning:

  

  

 

 

 

  

 

Bench and Snow Lakes

After stopping at Christine and Narada Falls in Mt Rainier National Park this morning we drove to the Bench Lake and Snow Lake Trailhead. This is a 2.5 mile round trip hike with 700 ft of overall gain. We saw some wildflowers in bloom along this trail, including these corn lilies. 

We also found delicious ripe blueberries alongside the trail.

Overlooking Bench Lake

Hazy view of what I think is Unicorn Peak through the fog.

View of Snow Lake from the log bridge over the logjam at the outlet.

Wide angle view of Snow Lake from campsite 2

We stopped at Bench Lake on our way back out. 

There was no view of Mt Rainier from Bench Lake on this cloudy, foggy day.

some of the wildflowers and berries we saw along the trail today: