Mt. Rainier Hike, July 2005

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Later in July, we joined our neighbors the Kellys on some of their weekly hikes.

Mt. Rainier

First a hike part-way up Mt. Rainier. We started at the White River campground, at 4,400 feet, and hiked up to Glacier Basin, 1,280 feet higher at 5,680 feet. It's about a 7 mile round trip, though we added at least a mile by also taking in the Emmons Moraine side-trail. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, so we never really saw the bulk of the mountain.

	A segment of the National Park map.		A little rushing stream.
	Lupine leaves with water droplets.		A fun flower, with spider.
	More flowers against a dead tree.		The women: Isabel, Chantal, Cassie, and Ellen.
	The Inter river, far below.		The men: Benjamin, Pete, and Joe.
	Snowfields just below the meadow.		A colorful stump.
	The meadow at Glacier Basin, with a little pond. We saw some hoary marmots around here.		More cute little flowers.
	Crossing a log bridge.		The "snout" or end of the Emmons glacier, the largest in the 48 contiguous states.
	A pond below the Emmons glacier, bright green with dissolved minerals.

Snow Lake

Then a hike to Snow Lake near Snoqualmie Pass. The hike actually starts at the Alpental ski area at 3,100 feet, then climbs over the ridge at about 4,500 feet, and down to Snow Lake itself, at just over 4,000 feet.

	A view of 6,000 foot peaks in the Cascades as we started off.		A rest halt.
	More peaks.		A view of the lake, about a mile long, from up the ridge.
	A large tree cantilevered out from the rock.		A cute little flowering plant.
			A wider view of flowering plants in the rock slope.
	A view over the lake to peaks beyond.		An interesting flower by a small waterfall.
	The Kelly's dog Raffi, looking rather bear-like.		Joe Kelly and friend Gavin experience the cold water.
	Chantal pondering the view from the shore.		On the way back.

2005 Index

These pictures were taken with a Canon G2 digital camera. Images were raw-converted with Phase One's C1 LE, and cropped, balanced, etc. with Adobe Photoshop Elements.