Hurricane Hill Snowshoe

 A beautiful sunny day with moderate avalanche conditions, meant a good day to snowshoe up to Hurricane Hill in the Olympics. This is a 6 mile round trip with 800+ ft overall elevation gain.
The trail starts with 1.3 miles along the closed Hurricane Hill road.

 Along the way there were some nice views. Here, looking north towards Hurricane Hill.

 To the west, the north Olympics

 To the east, Mount Angeles.

 At the end of the road, is the "trail" to Hurricane Hill. A short ways up, the trail splits. On the left is a narrow, icy trail used by skiers. On the right, is up over the hill for hikers and snowshoers. Need to stay away from the cornices on the edge of the hill.

Pano from this hill, looking south towards Mount Angeles and the Olympic Mountains

 Looking back, after going up a little further.

Wide angle looking north to east: Hurricane Hill and Mount Angeles

 Wide angle looking west to north: western Olympics and Hurricane Hill

Looking back down, while going up Hurricane Hill

 People gathered at the top of Hurricane Hill.

 After a short break on top of Hurricane Hill, we decided to wander down to the east end.

Pano looking south, the view is endless.

 Pano looking north from Hurricane Hill, Vancouver Island, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, San Juan Islands, Canadian Cascades, Mt Baker and Mount Angeles

 There were some interesting frozen tree figures.

 Heading back down off of Hurricane Hill, we took our time enjoying the warm afternoon and the gorgeous views.

3D model of the Olympics at the visitor center.

Paradise Glacier Trail

 Beautiful day to snowshoe up at Mt Rainier. This is one of my favorite snowshoe trips: Paradise to Mazama Ridge to up along the Paradise Glacier Trail. About 5 miles and 900 ft of elevation gain.
We were glad to see a trail had been broken from Paradise up to Mazama Ridge.

 There was lots of fresh powdery snow.

 Beautiful views of the mountain from the side of Mazama Ridge.

 Views of the Tatoosh Range from Mazama Ridge.

Mount Rainier from Mazama Ridge

 Beautiful snow covered trees

There were no tracks in the snow above Mazama Ridge since the last snowfall. So nice to have friends to help break trail!

 Mt St Helens peaking over the Tatoosh Range to the southwest

 The Goat Rocks and Mt Adams to the southeast

Panorama view: Goat Rocks, Adams, Tatoosh Range, St Helens and Rainier.

 Iron, Copper and Pyramid Peaks and the southern flank of Mt Rainer

 Lovely Winter Wonderland today!

 lots of icicles on some trees

 On our way back down, we enjoyed the many views of Rainier

 Lots of fun descending Mazama Ridge in the soft snow

 Another view of Rainier











 









Returning to Paradise, fabulous day to snowshoe!

Franklin Falls Winter Hike

 Nice cold day to see a frozen Franklin Falls off of I-90 before Snoqualmie Pass. This is usually a 2 mile round trip hike, but due to the snow and an abandon car blocking the road, I ended up parking near the freeway and doing a 3 mile snow covered road walk each way before reaching the trail head.

 View of Denny Creek from the bridge on the road.

Love how the snow covered rocks look like giant marshmallows!
















Another view of Denny Creek from the "trail".


















View of Franklin Falls from the trail.

Panorama view looking towards the falls and the icy walls on either side.

 Views of Franklin Falls

 There were some ice climbers went up this wall of ice today.

View back towards the trail and Denny Creek below the Falls.

 Beautiful icicles above the trail

 Sun came out as I hiked back down the trail.

Kendall Peak Lakes Snowshoe

 Beautiful day to be out in the mountains. We drove up to Snoqualmie Pass to do the Kendall Peak Lakes Snowshoe. 8.5 miles rt with 1,700 ft elevation gain. The trail goes up a close forest road and is easy to follow. We found the trail well packed down and icy. We used microspikes for the majority of the trip, only using snowshoes in the deeper less traveled on snow within the lake basin.

 Lots of lovely relatively fresh snow covering the trees.

 We followed the road until we reached the steep short cut going straight up the slope, cutting off some of the switchbacks along the road.

The short cut soon joins the main trail on the road.

Looking toward the cirque where Kendall Peak Lakes are located. There was only a light track headed out toward the lakes, we soon found ourselves post holing and switched to snowshoes.

 the lower Kendall Peak Lake

 We had a lunch break at the middle Kendall Peak Lake. We did not attempt to find the upper lake as it is lies among the avalanche prone cirque walls.

 We then snowshoed over toward the overlook area on the road.

 Here we were following a single ski track in soft deep snow. Even on snowshoes I potholed up to my thighs a couple of times.

Wide angle view of Alta Mountain, Keechelus Lake and in the distance Mt Rainier.

 We stayed on the road all the way down, continuing to enjoy this winter wonderland.