18 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
With the expected heat this weekend, we decided to head somewhere that would be a bit cooler but still be beautiful and sunny. We decided to give Indian Henry's on Mt. Rainier a try. What an amazing hike! We started around 8:30 am. The sun was shining bright and it was a balmy 55 degrees out. Perfect weather! We headed out on the Wonederland trail and made our way to the Rampart Ridge cut off. We decided then we'd take that on the way out and make a tiny loop of our day. We continued on and made our way over and down and back up again to Devil's Dream camp. This was my first time in this area and its a great camp setup. Not one camper there however. The lillies however were there in abundance! Everywhere you looked were fields of Avalanche Lillies! So pretty. It was starting to warm up a bit at this point and we continued to climb up the final section to the hunting grounds. After Devil's Dream, you mostly leave the wooded part of the hike and it opens up. We finally came into a wonderful meadow and this is the only spot where there was any snow at all on the trail. A 5-6 foot section at best. There were patches up in the surrounding area, but only this spot on the trail. Another mile or so and we finally made our destination. Wow!! I can see why it's so popular. The meadows full of flowers and the cabin all nestled back in the tree line with Mt. Rainier looming behind. So picturesque!! There were people milling about and down at the cabin but not nearly as bad as I thought there would be on Saturday. We had lunch at the cabin and then made our trip out. My daughter came with on this hike and she did really wonderful considering she only hikes once every blue moon with me. We made our way back to the Rampart cutoff and headed out and then finished the trip off with the little scenic loop at the end and then got a great treat as we finished. A deer was just meandering in front of the Longmire Inn having a little snack. Did not seem to care that people were standing 5 feet away taking pictures. Grabbed a few myself and then headed out for a long 3 hour drive home. Don't think it ever got much above 70 the whole day. Fantastic Day! Oh and we all set personal records for miles hiked in one day yesterday! One other thing WTA and the signs at Mt. Rainier have the distance off on this hike. WTA said 12.6 miles roundtrip from Longmire and the signs there showed 13.8 roundtrip . We clocked 8.62 from l Longmire to the cabin itself one way which would have put it approximately 16 to 17 miles round trip had we just did the out and back. Also bugs are out. Mosquitoes were a nuisance at the cabin.
