[williswall]

I'm on vacation awaiting my daughter's arrival for some hiking (her vacation) so I used this opportunity to knock off some to-do's in Mt. Rainier National Park. Base camping out of my pseudo RV, I checked in to the White River campground on Sunday night (Aug 19th) and paid for 4 nights. The outlook was poor as I looked up the White River and could barely make out Rainier because of the smoke. I'd just have to see how it went on Monday, so I wandered around Sunday evening taking some pix and hiking up the Glacier Basin trail for a bit.

Smoke on Aug 19, White River

White River high flow in the PM

3 people crossing White River

Blooms on White River

Inside the White River cabin

Aug 20: Brown Peak/Slide Mountain/The Palisades (16.4 miles/5,400') I got a fairly early start on that day's plan, to hike the Palisades trail to its end, proceed over Brown Peak to one of the summits of Slide Mountain, then retrace to hit The Palisades on the way back. The smoke was thick, and visibility was severely restricted as I hit the high points and could sometimes barely see to the next ridge line. However, I seemed to have no reaction to the equivalent of smoking 7 cigs a day and rather enjoyed the lonely trail. Brown was easy and once on the summit I could see the route along the ridge towards Slide. It seems the Mountaineers considers any of the 3 peaks a summit so I made my way past peak 1 to the actual slide part of the mountain, a loose and bouldery mess. After much fun crossing this to the other side, I decided to return and considered it good enough, glad to be back on the ridge where I eventually made my way to the trail, checking out Upper Palisades Lake in the process. There were a number of people here including some pack rafters. I left and took the turnoff to Hidden Lake to climb my next peak, The Palisades. Palisades and Marcus are accessed from the same saddle above Hidden Lake, and my original plan was to do both. However, the severely restricted views from the smoke made me decide to skip the more difficult scramble of Marcus for some other time, if I so desire. It's a steep climb to the Green Park saddle but the route to The Palisades wasn't too difficult finding best terrain. I think the view from the top is superb, but when you can't even make out Rainier at such a close distance one has to imagine. What was impressive was gazing down on the Palisades formations, more impressive from above than from below. Aside from choosing a poor line on the descent (I should have stayed more right to avoid the conifers), the rest of the day was retracing my steps on the Palisades trail to my parked vehicle at Sunrise Point. Of course, not before I enjoyed an invigorating soak in Hidden Lake.

Above Clover Lake, what I have to look forward to

Clover Lake

Hazy sun over Dick's Lake

The Palisades, to be visited later

Looking towards Slide from Brown

The "slide" of Slide Mtn

The Palisades and Rainier from Slide

Floaters on Upper Palisades Lake

Hidden Lake from the Green Park saddle

View from The Palisades

The ridge to Slide Mountain

Final bit to the summit of The Palisades

Hidden Lake reflections

Hint of Fall

Palisades map

Brown:Slide:Palisades elev profile

Aug 21: Dege/Antler/McNeeley Peaks (8.25 miles/3,000') I amazingly slept for 13 hours that night, settling down at 9 PM and waking up at 10 AM. Nice! This 3 peak day needn't be rushed however, so I started hiking past noon, once again parking my vehicle at Sunrise Point. The air quality was much better and the Sourdough Ridge trail soon brought me to Dege, which has a trail all the way to the top. After enjoying the views I continued on to leave the trail on the east ridge of Antler Peak. The description called this an easy scramble with no further details beyond using the east ridge, so I ascended right to some blocks and looked for a way up. The right side looked to have some class 4 moves above a steep gully with no assurances that beyond would be better. I concluded that the left side was probably the correct way and sure enough, the easy scramble deposited me on top of Antler with nice views and continuing solitude; strange considering all the people at Sunrise, which I could see. After my afternoon lolligag atop I beat feet for Sunrise to partake of a cheeseburger at the snack bar. Then I was off for McNeeley, a short hike to the Huckleberry Creek trail intersection where I dropped to a point to access the saddle for McNeeley. I should have stayed lower in the meadow for longer (which I did on the return) but no particular problems arose on the ascent aside from the usual quest for best terrain. The summit is gained by climbing left until the final bit. I lingered on top for quite a while, taking in the much better, less smoky views and enjoying the late afternoon sun. I departed in the hopes of hitting the snack bar for a coffee before it closed at 7. Then an interesting thing happened going down....I somehow got turned around 180 degrees and ended up proceeding eastward on the right side of the ridge. I finally noticed when I looked out at the adjacent terrain. Just a reminder that it's easy to get turned around, especially solo. Luckily I hadn't descended too far and scrambled back up to the other side of the ridge, this time dropping into the meadow sooner and enjoyed this leisurely walk to rejoin the trail. With plenty of time to grab a coffee, I caught a ride from a nice couple down the road a bit to my vehicle at Sunrise Point.

Approaching summit of Dege

Antler in view for next destination

Antler Peak east ridge in sight

East ridge of Antler

Looking back at Dege from Antler summit

Looking towards The Palisades and Slide from Dege

Beargrass from Sourdough Ridge trail

McNeeley Peak, right

Grand Park from McNeeley Peak

Huckleberry Basin from McNeeley Peak

McNeeley in view, right middle screen

McNeeley summit rocks

Sunrise Point from Dege

Transiting meadow to regain Huckleberry Creek trail

Waning light on the return

Well worn trails

Sunrise snackbar, just in time for coffee

Dege:Antler:McNeeley map

Dege:Antler:McNeeley elev profile

Aug 23: Huckleberry/Grand Park loop (26 miles/5,500') On Wednesday I took a down day to give my old legs a rest, then hit the trail at 7:30 AM from Sunrise on Thursday. It was considerably cooler and clearer when I started out, but as I descended down the Huckleberry Creek trail I could see the smoke at lower levels filling the valleys. Huckleberry Creek trail is a wonderful stroll in old growth forest with bubbling creeks on great trail....what's not to like? If you look at the elevation profile you can see it's a steady drop down to about 3200', then essentially a climb back up with a few rollers in between. The only thing I was unsure of after exiting the park and gaining FS 73 was where was the trail for Lake Eleanor? None of my maps show it; nonetheless I proceeded up the lonely and misty FS 73, steadily regaining altitude along the way. When I got to an off shoot road which could have been a contender, it looked much less used than the main drag. I remember a shot by Tigermn from a few years ago of the parking area for Lake Eleanor access and the road looked wide and well graded with a parking area. I took a chance and kept going on the main spur hoping to see some cars parked at the bend on the map, the likely access point. Otherwise my day would have lengthened with a cross country jaunt. So it was a bit of relief to see cars parked at the appropriate point and I gladly stepped back on trail and reentered the park. The going was good and I stopped briefly at Lake Eleanor, surprisingly not nearly as pretty as even Forest Lake, then climbed steadily through "mini Grand Park" to eventually hit the main attraction. As expected, I met a few people on this trail vice my lonely jaunt down Huckleberry. One gentleman took a picture of my InReach Mini after I extolled the virtues of having one. Now I know it's between seasons for Grand Park, after the spring bloom and before the reds and yellows of fall, but it's a delightful place at any time. Lots of pix here for sure. Although there's a short drop on the way to Berkeley Park, there wasn't much elevation gain left and I thoroughly enjoyed the last section through Berkeley to Sunrise with the sun at my back. This loop is just another example of fantastic one day jaunts available in the park if one doesn't mind a few miles hiking FS 73.

Morning on the upper Huckleberry Creek trail

Before the drop on Huckleberry Creek trail

Clearer skies on start of Huckleberry:Grand Park loop

Forest Lake

Let the transition begin

Home of the one eyed raven

Creekage

Unused patrol cabin on Huckleberry Creek trail boundary

Leaving National Park land

Polypore colony on Huckleberry Creek trail

Skies reflected in Forest Lake

Smoke in the lower valleys dropping into Huckleberry Creek

Lake Eleanor

Confirmation I chose wisely

Approaching intersection with the Northern Loop trail

Grand Park pano

Hikers on the Grand Park trail

Lone pine

Lower Grand Park

Mt. Fremont lookout from afar

Waterfall below Berkeley Park2

trail after "mini Grand Park"

The weather is a changin'

The grandness of Grand Park

Still abloom!

End of season in Berkeley Park

Backlit beargrass

Formations on Berkeley Park trail

Just 1.5 miles to go

Zoomed in McNeeley Peak

Sunset behind the snackbar

Huckleberry:Grand Park loop map

Huckleberry:Grand Park loop elev profile

[nordique]

Great report! But that's Western Pasque flower NOT beargrass. Dege Peak is one of my favorites, as it's the summit I've most often done on crutches (after seven right leg surgeries and two joint replacements). And, sad to say, I've passed hikers going up and going down Dege Peak while I was on crutches! It's sort of fun to yell on your left when you are passing people on crutches! It was great to revisit Dege Peak, from Sunrise, earlier this year (75 photos in four miles roundtrip): https://flic.kr/s/aHsmfGR1Ty

[Distel32]