Snow Lake

July 31, 2011

Left beautiful Alta Crystal Resort this morning. The area had lots of cloud cover and Rainier seemed to have vanished overnight. We selected Naches Peek Trail to hike. We were surprised to find the area completely covered in approximately 5 – 10 feet of snow at about 5,000 feet of elevation. We determined that we were ill prepared for this adventure and left for Silver Falls Trail instead. This trail was along a very fast moving river with an impressive waterfall that we enjoyed from a foot bridge. Box Canyon was an impressive 13 feet wide and 180 feet deep with very rapid moving water. Our favorite hike of the day was Bench Lake and Snow Lake Trail which had only a 700 foot elevation change from beginning to end point, however it was a very up and down moderate to strenuous trail. The narrow trail was lined with beautiful white Avalanche Lillie and went through the forest, valley with mountains surrounding us that included waterfalls from the melting snow. Bench lake was the first lake we saw. Parts of the trail were very muddy from the melting snow. Once we past Bench Lake we continued to climb the trail until we came to a snow covered valley. We walked with the mountains surrounding us high on three sides. The mountains were lined with rocks, trees, and snow. We sat on a pile of rocks and ate lunch. Andrew, in shorts, fell through the snow and was stuck with one leg buried. Luckily, we were able to rescue him and his scratched up leg from the hidden snow trap. The area was just beautiful and so very different from anything else we had seen. The return trip was much faster with the elevation working in our favor. Quick stop at the Paradise visitor center and headed to The National Park Inn. We love this little simple inn with great views of Rainier through the clouds and cookies in the the lounge!