July 26, 2012
Ohhhh, it's good to be back at Mount Rainier...the huge first-growth trees, the cool mountain breeze, the sound of the rushing river as the snow melts...and there is nothing quite like having your morning coffee outside under the trees as the sun makes its way down the hillside across the river.
And this morning we have the Baklava from St. John's Monastery to go with our coffee...now that's good!
As the sun comes up, we plan our day...today we will follow the ranger's advice and climb the Crystal Lake trail...it is one of the few that is snow-free at the moment, and the upper lake is supposed to be beautiful.
In the early morning light we can see the debris that has changed the course of the Ohanapecosh River, and caused the cave-ins of the high bank the campground occupies. There used to be a campsite next to ours, but it fell into the river in 2006 when massive rains swelled the river...not only did the 18 inches of rain in 36 hours cause the river to rise, it also caused a landslide and we're directly across the river from where the hillside came down. It pushed countless trees and a massive amount of earth into the river, forcing the river towards our campground...
After breakfast, we take a drive to the Crystal Lakes trailhead. Here at Rainier, as in most national parks, all the trails are well signed...we're headed for Upper Crystal Lake, three miles and about 2,500 foot elevation gain.
The trail starts out crossing a creek and heading up into the woods...not long into the hike we hit a section of trail that is boardwalk due to the springs that run out of the hillside...
About a mile into the hike we get our first great view...of Rainier itself! It would be nice if that little cloud would move for us, but it's still quite a sight...
The trail ends up through forest most of the way to the lower lake...
...and then you come out at the lower Crystal Lake, a beautiful little alpine lake.
There are campsites both here at the lower lake, as well as at the upper lake.
We decide to take a look around at the camping accommodations here at the lower lake...there are only two camp sites, so campers have to get here early...but the camp sites look pretty roomy...
There are bears out here, so campers have to take precautions. Bears usually come near camp sites because they smell food, so one of the ways to avoid bear confrontations is to put food in a bag and suspend it in the air. Here at the campsites there is a pole set up just for that purpose...
These two campsites even have a toilet (what luxury!), but once we see the toilet the term "luxury" really doesn't seem to apply...
So we grab a quick snack bar and some water and we head up to the upper lake. The trail changes to a more open landscape, and we start to see the first wild flowers...
It takes a while for spring to arrive up here...we're over 5,500 feet in elevation, so the snow and frosty nights linger here well into the summer months. The flowers will probably be even more prolific in the weeks ahead...
We reach the upper Crystal Lake and the hiking books were right...this lake is much more scenic than the lower lake. The upper lake is larger than the lower lake, and it is ringed by small peaks. Snow is still lingering on the far side of the lake which hangs on to a bit more shade during the day...
We somehow failed in our planning for this hike...for some reason we assumed that we would just have lunch when we got back to the RV, but this would have been a perfect spot for lunch! So, we settle for another snack and some water, and then start our descent. On the way down, the sun is to our backs so the flowers seem even brighter...
We arrive back at our RV at the trailhead and decide to have lunch right here. And it seems that, regardless of where we are, we cannot avoid a bicycle race of some sort...It just so happens that today is the day of the RAMROD bicycle race...RAMROD stands for Race Around Mount Rainier in One Day. We happen to be watching in the middle of a long downhill stretch, so these racers look happy. A little later we passed cyclists on the grueling uphill and they looked anything but happy...
Back at the campground we shower and break open two cold Blue Moons...and Michael tries to catch up on the blogging...we're nearly a week behind since we didn't have good Internet access in Bend, Maryhill and now here...maybe we'll go into Packwood tomorrow to try to get some Internet access...
Tomorow, we'll do some more hiking and enjoy this beautiful park...
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