Mt. Rainier National Park

After coming down off of Cascade Pass, we immediately started south towards Mt Rainier National Park.  The drive from North Cascades, back through Seattle, to the White River Campground on the east side of Mt Rainier took us about four hours.  We were greeted with much different weather...cold and a light sleet as we were setting up camp for the night.  Luckily, we were able to buy some firewood and got a nice campfire started as the sun went down to stay warm.  Wednesday morning we woke up to near perfect weather, blue skies over Mt Rainier.  From our campsite, we decided to hike into Glacier Basin.  The trail followed the White River towards Mt Rainier.  The contrast of the white glaciers against the blue skies and surrounding evergreens was a beautiful sight.  After about 3 miles and an 1800' climb we arrived in Glacier Basin and of course had to plant the Vols flag...

After our hike to Glacier Basin we got packed up at camp and headed for the south side of the mountain to do a tourist visit of the rest of the National Park before continuing south towards Oregon.  Incredibly, the weather changed almost immediately as we drove around the southern edge of Mt Rainier.  The blue skies turned overcast and then a light drizzle.  Our first stop was at the Paradise Valley visitors center.  This is typically where Mt Rainier climbers base from.  Paradise Inn is also here. Usually you can get great views of Rainier with very little effort from the Inn but no such luck for us.  After picking up a couple souvenirs we continued on our way.  We made stops at Narada Falls and Christine Falls on our way out of the park.

Leaving Mt Rainier National Park we took a beautiful drive through Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the South Cascades.  About an hour into our drive we lucked into a turnoff for Mt. St Helens.  We didn't originally plan on seeing St Helens in an effort to get closer to Oregon for the night but we couldn't pass it up.  The drive into St Helens Volcanic Monument was pretty surreal.  The aftermath of the eruption is still very visible.  It was really cool to learn about the history of the volcano and the destruction and now the regeneration of the landscape.  After spending a little bit of time at Windy Ridge, we continued south towards Oregon.

North Cascades

Abe and I got to take an incredible trip to the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of the month.  We had been planning a trip to Washington and Oregon since the spring.  Labor Day weekend finally arrived and we were off to Seattle for a week of hiking, camping, backpacking and soaking in the incredible landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.

We flew into Seattle from Atlanta and Dallas the Sunday morning before Labor Day.  After a few quick stops in Seattle to load up on groceries and some gear that the TSA didn't deem appropriate to bring on an airplane we were headed north to North Cascades National Park.  It immediately became clear that Washington state was unlike anywhere I had ever been before.  The combination of mountains and endless water made for beautiful scenes around every corner.  The Evergreen State is exactly that.

We got to the North Cascades late afternoon.  After a quick stop at the ranger station for some hike recommendations, we settled in at Marble Creek Campground for the night.

Monday morning we headed to Hidden Lake Lookout trailhead for our first hike.  After navigating some challenging roads, we made it to the trailhead.  The hike was 8 miles round trip and climbed 3,300' from the trailhead to the lookout tower high above Hidden Lake.  The hike started out in dense forest before opening up into a deep creek drainage with views to the valley below.  After a couple miles the surroundings change dramatically from subalpine meadows to bare granite.  After navigating some late summer snow patches we reached a high saddle and Hidden Lake came into view.  We were really lucky and got mostly clear views to the surrounding giants of the North Cascades.  Breathtaking scenery.  After a quick lunch, we climbed through the boulders up to the Lookout Tower at the summit.  Perfect first hike.

We had originally planned to do a backpack into a primitive camp near Cascade Pass Monday night but our trip up to Hidden Lake took us a little longer than we expected.  With altered plans we set up the tent Mineral Basin for the night.  We headed up to Cascade Pass Tuesday morning.  The weather was much more overcast than the day before.  When we arrived at the trailhead, we were literally in the clouds.  Couldn't see a thing.  As we began to climb the switchbacks the clouds quickly began to move out and the views opened up. Stunning again.  Glaciers, granite, subalpine meadow, endless forests of evergreen.  Although the clouds covered some views they created a wonderful sense of place.  This felt like the Pacific Northwest that I always imagined.