Skyline Trail Mount Rainier

We drove up to Paradise on Mt Rainier to hike the High Skyline Loop Trail. This hike is about 5.5 miles with 1,450 ft of elevation gain. While most of the wildflowers are gone, there is lots of color along the way, and I was surprised at how many wildflowers we did find in bloom.

 There are many different trails at Paradise that lead up to the Skyline Trail. We parked at the lower parking lot, hoping to go up the Moraine Trail, but found it and the Nisqually Vista Trail Close for repairs during the week. So we walked up to the Visitor Center and started at the stairs seen in the picture above.







 We hadn't taken the Alta Vista Trail up to the Skyline Trail, so we headed up that way. There are trails on either side of Alta Vista, but we choose the trail that went over the top, good workout! The top of Alta Vista is see in the background by the tall trees.

















We then headed up the Skyline Trail over to Glacier Vista. The Tatoosh Range is in the far background, with Alta Vista to the right.

 View of Mt Rainier with several glaciers and waterfalls.

 Continuing up the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point.

We took a break at Panorama Point, there always seems to be squirrels here.

 There was too much smoke in the air to see the southern volcanoes today.

 We continued on the High Skyline Trail.

 After hiking past the Golden Gate Trail (which cuts 1 mile off of the loop hike back to Paradise), continuing on the Skyline Trail, we crossed several streams that had wildflowers still in bloom.

We saw a young grouse on the trail.

 View of Mt Rainier as we hiked down the Skyline Trail back towards Paradise.

We saw a couple of marmots enjoying an afternoon's rest.

 View of Mt Rainier and Myrtle Falls.

 Some of the plants and wildflowers we saw along the trail:

     

 

Iller Creek HIke

 Iller Creek is a 5 mile loop hike with 1,200 ft of elevation gain. This conservation area is located south of Spokane Valley. We read it was best to do the hike in a counterclockwise direction and that there were trail markers at all the important junctions. We discovered there were many social trails in this area, did not see the trail markers and apparently we got off trail almost immediately.

 We did enjoy the colors and the hike, although we probably took a steeper and longer route than the one on the main trail.

 Looking down towards Iller Creek and Spokane Valley. I think the main trail might have headed up the creek floor?

 We did find our way to the far end of the loop at the Rocks of Sharon, thanks to the help of a map and a trail runner.

 There are several large rocks here.

 We found a shady area near "Big Rock" to enjoy our lunch

 Once we knew where we were on the trail, we found a trail marker.

Panorama view of some of the Rocks of Sharon and the Palouse to the South

 We took the trail on the east side of the loop back to the trailhead. Most of this trail is on a ridge line.

 The trail gave us views to Spokane Valley to the north.

 a series of switchbacks brought us back to the trailhead.

Although it is late in the season, we did see some wildflowers in bloom along with some berries and other plants: