Upper Crystal Lake 7/19/2018

Upper Crystal Lake
Upper Crystal Lake

Great hike today.  We (myself, Ken, Mark and Greg) ventured down south to Mount Rainier National Park to hike to Upper Crystal Lake.  The hike itself was relatively moderate, a nice consistent grade almost the entire way on a good trail but the location and the views were first-rate.

We parked on the side of Highway 410 and crossed the street to the trail head:

Parking
Parking

Not too far up the trail there was a break in the trees and we could see the nearby Mt. Rainier:

Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier

Here is a view from way overhead, via Google Earth, of our proximity to Rainier.  Our track is the little blue squiggle on the right; Rainier is pretty obvious:

Rainier/Crystal Lake
Rainier/Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake sits in a basin surrounded by very impressive mountains:

Above the Lake
Above the Lake

Just below the lake is another one of those beautiful mountain meadows:

Another Mountain Meadow
Another Mountain Meadow

We were up pretty high, in the neighborhood of 5,800 feet +.  Here is what our track looks like on Google Earth:

Track
Track

According to my Garmin the hike was 5.84 miles with 2,263 feet of elevation gain.  Fairly moderate but an outstanding hike nevertheless.

 

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