5 day trip to Mt. Rainier National Park
30 June - 4 July 2008
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Monday
30 June
Seattle to Cougar Rock Campground, Mt. Rainier National Park
Park Entrance Fee - $15 (good for 7 days, or "America the Beatuiful Parks pass"
Camping Fee - $15
Drove: 105 miles
Hiked: 3/4 mile - Longmire interpretive trail
Biked: ~4 miles, from Campground, down to Longmire, and back up to the Campground
I got lots of good info from the backcountry ranger station in Longmire, including a backcountry permit to camp at Nickel Creek the following night. There is no charge for backcountry permits, but you must register with the park to spend the night in the backcountry. They had a map of highlighted trails where snow was known to have melted out, which was quite useful.
Cougar Rock Campground is your standard National Park frontcountry campground, including evening ranger programs. However the layout was such that some of the sites were quite far from the bathrooms; I cut through an unused site that was behind mine to shorten my hike.
Tuesday
1 July 2008
Cougar Rock Campground to Nickel Creek backcountry site
Camping fee - none (free permit required)
Drove: 21 miles
Hiked: about 5+ miles
Hike in from road to site: Slightly less than a mile, took about 1/2 hour each way due to snow and swampy areas.
Nickel Creek backcountry campsite is along the wonderland trail, about 1 mile from the box canyon parking area, just east of a short tunnel on the road. There are two box canyon parking areas, however the eastern one is directly across from the trailhead. The hike is fairly easy, gaining most of its 400 foot gain early on. About the last 1/3 of the trail was snow covered, and the bridge across Nickel creek (which was about 20 feet wide and running fast) was missing a handrail, which I had been warned about. It was still a fairly easy crossing, but the bridge was only about 2 feet wide. With snowmelt full-on upstream (despite having 2-3 feet of snow on the ground) I had to do some route-finding to get past a very marshy area and up onto dry land. The toilet for the site was easily visible, and my only indication that I was actually there. The bear pole had probably fallen over and was under snow.
I spent most of the day at Paradise, hiking upwards on snow and learning things in ranger programs. I hiked up to near Panorama point, up to around 6800 ft, gaining something like 1,600 feet over just over 1.5 miles. Thankfully going down on the somewhat wet snow was much easier than going up.
Wednesday
2 July 2008
Nickel Creek backcountry site to Lower Crystal Lake backcountry site
Camping fee - none (free permit required)
Drove: 19.7 miles
Distance from road to campsite: 2.3 or 2.5 miles to lower crystal lake, 3 miles to upper crystal lake. 1 hr 20 minutes to lower crystal lake, about another 15-20 minutes to upper crystal lake (Includes time to stop & check out lower crystal lake campsites.) The hike down took just under an hour.
Hiked: 7+ miles
Lower Crystal Lake campsite is near the NE border of the park on crystal mountain. When chatting with a ranger my first night I was warned that the parking area is one of the few places that they have had theft problems, as it is on the main highway (and by theft problems its been about 2 "smash & go" situations of small valuables over the course of about 5 years.) Hiking up I passed several dayhikers on their way down, as well as two backpackers who were going without a permit, and who didn't seem prepared for how hard the hike would be, possibly due to elevation.
The hike is fairly continually up, with an elevation of 1,900 feet (up to 5,400 feet) over 2.3-2.5 (signs & maps dissagree) to lower crystal lake, and a total of 2,300 feet over about 3 miles to upper crystal lake. The trail was almost completely snow free, which was a nice change from all my snowy hiking earlier in the trip. I went all the way to upper crystal lake, but decided to head back down to lower for more solitude (and thats where my permit was actually for, although I basically was told by the ranger I got it from that it didn't really matter.) I was glad of my choice overnight when massive thunderstorms rolled through, as the sites at lower crystal lake are a bit more protected than the ones at upper crystal lake.
On my way I stopped at the Grove of the Patriarchs, which is a 1.5 miles fairly flat trail that leads to a suspension bridge across the Ohenapacosh river onto a small island with 1,000 year old trees. The grove is amazing and I spent quite a bit of time there.
Ohenapacosh proper, one of the 4 visitor centers in the park (Longmire, Paradise, Ohenapacosh, and Sunrise) was a bit disappointing, as was the small guided trail there. I'm sure if I had just entered the park I would have enjoyed it more. The visitor center is quite small and in the midst of the campground there.
Thursday
3 July 2008
Lower Crystal Lake backcountry site to Sunrise walk-in backcountry site
Camping fee- free, backcountry permit required
Distance to campsite - 1.3 miles, -100 feet of elevation from parking lot. It took me around 30 minutes to go each way, with snow slowing down sections of the trail.
Drove: 26 miles
Hiked: ~5.5 miles
I slept in quite late due to lack of sleep from the massive thunderstorms overnight. I arguably chose either a really good or really bad night to test out a few things in how my tent was set up. I am continually impressed with how well it does in wet weather, even when not set up quite right (It is the Tarptent Contrail). It does MUCH better than the "standard" tents I've slept in under inclement weather, is super light weight, and was relatively inexpensive.
I spent the afternoon wandering about paradise and checking out ranger programs. I learned a lot of cool things about glaciers, including that there are ice worms that live in the glaciers in the cascade range. I got a lot of good info as far as finding my campsite for the night from one of the rangers.
A good portion of the trail out was snow free, and I managed to find a space just big enough to squeeze my tent into that was snow free in one of the campsites. I did the 1.3 mile hike in about a half hour. However, most of the ground in and around the campsite was covered in about 2 feet of snow.
Friday
4 July 2008
Sunrise walk-in backcountry site back to Seattle
Drove: 107 miles
Hiked: 1.3 miles
The hike back and drive back were both uneventful. There is NPR reception from Seattle for the entire drive back, and there are several forest service land campsites just to the north of the park, some of which are free.
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