SnowBowl Hut

We drove up to the South District upper parking area to hike up to SnowBowl Hut and the gazebo. The road was free of snow up to the upper parking lot, and a consistent snow layer started before the gate. We did 6.5 miles with 1,400 ft of gain. We stayed off to the side of the groomed trails (which are closed forest roads) and used microspikes on the way up. It was a little slushy coming down with minimal post holing. 

SnowBowl Hut

View of Mt Rainier which was behind us as we faced SnowBowl hut

We went around the hut (it is closed during Covid19) to the gazebo. Pano view on the way to the gazebo:

zoom of High Rock with its fire lookout on top

zoom of the Goat Rocks

zoom of Mt Adams

zoom of a hazy Mt St Helens

View of a cloudy Mt Rainier from outside the gazebo

 

Snow Bowl Hut Snowshoe

We drove to the south district of the Mount Tahoma Trail Association to snowshoe up to Snowbowl Hut. Due to the heavy snow of the last week, only the lower parking area was open, making this an 8.5 mile round trip with 2,000 ft of gain.
We were happy to have blue sky and sunshine on what was forecast to be a partly sunny day.

The road had been recently groomed and was easy to snowshoe on the well packed snow in the morning. In the afternoon, the warmth of the sun had softened the snow making it a bit slushy. In the spirit of "sharing the trail" we stayed to the side of the groomed area.













Found a nice patch of icicles on the way up.

Small tree completely covered and bent over with snow.

This is the largest pinwheel I have seen.

When we reached the saddle, we looked back across to the ridge in the distance to see High Hut. We watched as a pinwheel came down the hillside across the saddle.

On the turnoff to Snow Bowl Hut, we looked behind us and saw Mt Rainier emerging from the clouds (zoom).

In the other direction (center of the photo) is the gazebo, our destination.

Last stretch of the trail up to Snow Bowl Hut (the trail to the gazebo is behind Snow Bowl Hut and off to the right).

As we continued on towards Snow Bowl Hut, we could see the Goat Rocks and Mt Adams to the southeast.

View of Mt Rainier from outside the gazebo

view of Mt Rainier from inside the warm gazebo.
We had a nice long lunch break mostly to ourselves.

As we headed back down the trail, we enjoyed snowshoeing towards Mt Rainier.

As the clouds continued to be blown away, we had a nice view of both Mt Adams (left) and Mt St Helens (right) to the south.

Back at the saddle, we noticed many pinwheels had come down in the afternoon sun. Grateful to be on these trails in an avalanche free zone in these conditions.










Before reaching the closed upper parking area, we had another nice view of the top of Mt Rainier.

Snow Bowl Hut Overnight Snowshoe

We had reservations to spend the night at Bruni's Snowbowl Hut, one of MTTA's huts near Ashford. Although the upper Sno-Park lot was open, the weather forecast was for 4 - 8" of new snow, so I felt safer parking at the lower Sno-Park. This made our trip 8 miles round trip with 2,200 ft of elevation gain. There was only a little snow along the side of the road by the parking area, enough to pull my sled.

By the time we reached the Upper Sno-Park, there was close to 8" of snow and it began snowing heavily.

The entire route is up closed forest roads. This is a great place to snowshoe in poor avalanche conditions as there are no avalanche risks along the main routes.

















There are several streams along the way.

We took turns pulling the sled.
We had some breaks from the snowfall.

It was a winter wonderland with all the fresh snow.

The turn off to Snow Bowl Hut is about 2.5 miles from the lower parking area. As we crossed the saddle towards the Snow Bowl Hut, we had some blue sky.

After enjoying a nice flat area along the saddle, the road again climbs uphill. I was happy to see the roof of the hut peeking above the trees.

Snow Bowl Hut!

On a clear day, there are great views of Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens. Today we only had views of local hills, but they were beautiful with all the new snow.

In the evening, the full moon broke through the clouds for a while. (very fuzzy photo taken with my phone).

Snow Bowl hut at night.

In the morning, there were too many clouds to see the lunar eclipse. I walked to the gazebo a short ways down the ridge.

As we snowshoed back down the trail, I enjoyed all the snow covered trees and landscapes.