Snow Lake

This summer certainly hasn’t been as exciting as I would have wanted, but we haven’t been locked in the house throughout the sunniest days of the month.  Nope, we have ventured out to Mt. Rainier twice in the last two weeks, though we’ve tried to avoid popular locations.  Our first outing was to Snow Lake on the south-eastern side of Mt. Rainier, giving us a different look at the mountain than we get from home.

Although flowers weren’t as abundant as I imagine they were at Paradise, they were still lots of flowers.  I stopped to photograph this flower that none of us could identify on our way up to the lake. 

I’m glad I did or I would never have noticed this grouse family, which was foraging right behind me.  Leslie and Paul who were just ahead of me never even noticed them, though they couldn’t. have been more than two feet from the trail.

We were rewarded at the end of the trail by a small, but beautiful Snow Lake.  

The trek back to the parking lot was made easier by the abundant flowers,

especially since taking shots of them gave me an excuse to take a short break.

It was a surprisingly beautiful hike, but it came at a price: the entire two miles were up and down, with hardly a level spot on the entire trip. 

Once we reached the parking lot it seemed like a small price to pay for such beauty.  

3 thoughts on “Snow Lake”

  1. Sounds like a great walk. It got me Googling Mt Rainier. I didn’t realize it was such a tough climb – your photo makes it look quite friendly. It’s quite a dodgy volcano, too, by the sound of it!

    1. It is a formidable mountain, one that requires guides unless you’re an extremely skilled climber. It claims one of two lives per year; sometimes it is the weather; sometimes its inexperienced climbers who think it’s easier than it really is.

      Of course, we walk around the mountain to get a closer view of it; it’s rare we actually walk on the glaciers and when we do it’s usually winter when we are in snowshoes.

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