Ranger Falls

I drove to the Cabin River Entrance of Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Ranger Falls, 8 miles round trip with 1,000 ft of gain. I only saw 4 other hikers today, and that was when I was more than 1/2 way back to the trailhead. There were only a few inches of snow along the road walk.  The first 3 miles to Ranger Falls are along this closed road, here I saw some deer.

Lovely forest

This view of Tirzah Peak across the Carbon River is about 100 yards before the turn off to Ranger Falls and Green Lake.

icicles on a large boulder

The trail goes under this huge nurse log.

icicles on a mossy boulder

snowy shelf fungi

The snow going up to Ranger Falls was well packed down and not deep.

Lots of icicles on the rocks next to Ranger Falls

icicles over a small creek 

icicles next to Ranger Falls

frozen puddle on the road portion of the hike

 

Ranger Falls/Green Lake

I drove up to the Carbon River Entrance at Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Ranger Falls and Green Lake, 9.8 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1,500 ft. I only saw one other hiker on this trail today.  After the storm damage of the road last year, it was nice to see the road was fixed and we could drive all the way to the parking area. The first 3.1 miles are through a lush forest, lots of trees, moss and nurse logs. Although it is spring on the calendar, it is still winter in the mountains.

The first 1.75 miles had a few snow patches on the closed road to the Ranger Falls trailhead. The elevation gain along this road walk is very mild.

The snow on the road walk became more consistent after 2 miles.

Shortly before the turn off to the Ranger Falls trail, the forest open for a view of Tirzah Peak and the Carbon River,

Ranger Falls is one mile up the trail.

After the short side trail to Ranger Falls, the trail continues uphill to Green Lake, which is maybe 0.25 miles after crossing the log bridge on Ranger Creek.

view of Ranger Creek from the log bridge

It was cloudy at Green Lake, very quiet and serene.

The ice is obviously melting on the lake, so I was surprised to see fresh boot prints on the probably thin ice.

 

Ranger Falls and Green Lake

The Carbon River Entrance at Mount Rainier National Park has recently opened, so we drove up to hike to Ranger Falls and Green Lake, a 10 mile round trip with 1,500 ft of gain. We only saw 3 other hikers along the closed road portion of the hike, and had the Falls/Lake trail to ourselves.

View of the Carbon River from the parking area at the end of the road. There was a nice light layer of fresh snow from last night.

The Carbon River complelely eroded away the road at the park entrance last fall. The park has made a narrow trail through the forest to lead to the old parking area at the entrance. Trail is on the right, road washed away behind the barrier on the left.

Standing at the closed road in the park looking back at where the road once was. We are parked behind the orange barricade in the distance. 

After reaching the old parking area, the first 3 miles are in the forest along the closed Carbon River Road. Shortly before the Ranger Falls trail, we had this lovely view of Tirzah Peak and the Carbon River.

Sun shining through the trees as we hiked up towards Ranger Falls.

The trail goes under this large nurse log.

We saw many icicles along the way today.

More sunshine through the snowy trees.

Ranger Falls is one mile up the trail from the closed Carbon River Road

From the short spur trail, back on the main trail we continued up another 0.8 miles toward Green Lake.

Ranger Creek as we neared the lake.

log bridge over Ranger Creek

It was so peaceful at Green Lake, we had a nice lunch break here before returning.

 

Ranger Falls and Green Lake

Drove out to the Carbon River Entrance of Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Ranger Falls and Green Lake this morning, 9.6 mile round trip with 1,500 ft of gain. Because the Carbon River has washed out part of the original entrance, the parking has been moved to the side of the road a short ways before the entrance.

The first 3 miles are on the closed Carbon River Road. This is a beautiful forest with some interesting nurse logs.

All of the trees that were blown down over the "road" between the entrance and the turn off to Ranger Falls and Green Lake have been cleared off the road.

View of the Carbon River and Tizah Peak from near the turn off to Ranger Falls and Green Lake

Ranger Falls 

Snow was consistently on the trail at about 3,200 ft (last 1/4 mile or so of the trail up to Green Lake). Snow was firm but not icy.

The log bridge over Ranger Creek was free of snow, there was a small ice patch on the far end that was easy to step over.

I saw a few people on the Carbon River Road, but no one on the trail up to Ranger Falls and Green Lake (and back down). It was so quiet and beautiful up at Green Lake

I saw a few wildflowers this morning:

 

Ranger Falls and Green Lake

Drove up to the Carbon River Entrance at Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Ranger Falls and Green Lake (9.6 miles round trip with 1,500 ft of gain), on the hike back we went up a side trail to an old mine (0.6 miles round trip with 170 ft of gain).
The first 3 miles of the trail is along the permanently closed Carbon River Road (very little incline).

Early on, we watched 3 deer, one at a time, cross the road in front of us.
This is a beautiful forest to walk through.

The woodpeckers really like this old stump

We encountered a few downed trees along the trail, that were fairly easy to go over or around.

About 3 miles from the trailhead, there is a nice view of Tirzah Peak across the Carbon River.

There was some intermittent snow going up the trail to Ranger Falls, we did not need snowshoes or microspikes.
From here it is 1 mile to Ranger Falls and an additional 0.8 miles to Green Lake,

We were happy to see some sunlight through the trees on what was forecast to be a very rainy day.

There were more downed trees on the way up to the falls and the lake.

Water running down the trail shortly before the short spur trail to Ranger Falls.

There was lots of water flowing in Ranger Falls today.

small orange fungi

After Ranger Falls, the snow was more consistent on the way up to Green Lake, but we did not need to use snowshoes or microspikes
Shelf fungus growing up the side of the trees.

We were pleased to see the log bridge crossing Ranger Creek was not icy or snow covered today.

Green Lake was mostly covered in ice.
Nice spot for a lunch break.

lovely lichen on dead logs

The trail to the old mine is about 1 mile from the parking area at the  Carbon River Entrance, we hiked up here on our way back.

a short steep trail up in the forest

mine entrance

view of the mine through the slats covering the entrance to the mine

lovely forest, full of trees, ferns, moss, lichen, and fungi