19 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
Major revelation: Mount Rainier National Park is almost exactly the same distance from home as the Whitewater Trailhead into Jefferson Park! Whoa!!! Reality altering realization, there. It's always seemed much farther away, and yet it's actually much closer because the roads are so much better and no need to deal with crazy urban messes in the Portland-Salem corridor.
We drove up to Longmire and jumped right on the Wonderland Trail, heading for Indian Henry's Hunting Ground with the thought that we'd continue on (as time allowed) towards Mirror Lakes. The forest was incredible. I kept muttering, "It's like we're in a park!" It just seemed so well-tended, as though a grounds crew scurried about all night to make sure it was beautiful for visitors during the day. Surreal.
The first few miles, to Devil's Dream campsite and a bit beyond, were mostly forested and mostly very old growth forest at that. We crossed a few glacial streams, and some smaller ones, all nicely bridged. The views really started opening up around Squaw Lake, as the meadows just spread out in all directions. We'd missed the bloom, and could only marvel at how spectacular it had to have been. This is absolutely a return-destination for an upcoming July!
The ranger cabin was locked up tight, after apparently being open and serving coffee to passing hikers only the week before. People were sitting on the deck, eating lunch, and Tahoma was still cloud-capped so photos weren't keepsake calibre on this first pass. We found a nice log behind the cabin to sit on and enjoy lunch, while soaking in the mountain views.
After lunch, we headed towards Mirror Lakes, for which the expectation must be set that "lake" is just a tad generous when used for these geographic features. The first and biggest did offer a nice reflection, though, when the monster tadpoles were settled down a bit.
The trail beyond Mirror Lakes was marked as unmaintained, which was fine by us! We later learned it used to (and seems to still) lead to the route up Pyramid Peak. Oooh, to have just another couple hours, and get up that beast too. Next time! As the views opened up more and more, we ultimately stumbled into a wide-open meadow with magnificent views of not only Tahoma, but Pyramid Peak and Cooper Mountain right beside us, south over the Tatoosh, and beyond to Old Snowy in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. WOW!
At this point, the cloud cap on Rainier "miraculously" dissipated. Talk about timing. We were snapping so many photos... But we were also just a bit beyond our agreed-upon turnaround time. So before long, we hustled on back towards the hunting grounds, hoping to get more cloud-free shots both from there and the many fine viewpoints in-between.
Shuffling back along the Wonderland towards Longmire was a treat for the feet. Such a nice trail! Graded very similarly to the PCT; never very steep, but never unnecessary switchbacks, either. After crossing Pyramid and Kautz Creeks again, we diverted along Rampart Ridge for the final return to Longmire. That route offered a very nice viewpoint that made the extra mile totally worth it.
What an incredible place. "Like a park!" Definitely going back.
