Mazama Ridge Near Mount Rainier

Today was a great day for snowshoe hiking.  It has been raining so hard near Seattle lately, but snowing a little in the mountains.  Since it is Saturday, and raining even more (!), we escaped - drove over to Mount Rainier National Park (Washington State, USA), found some deep snow, strapped on our snowshoes, and just headed out into the wilderness for 6 hours.

Well...it began snowing as soon as we began hiking, the temperature dropped to well below freezing, and the wind picked-up as we climbed up to the Mazama mountain ridge.

In other words, it was a pretty typical hike.  Fortunately, this wasn't too strenuous and the scenary was nice.

And then...it began snowing much harder, so hard that we couldn't see the mountain ridge, or anything else that was beyond 15 meters!

We found our way back to the trailhead and returned home safely :-).  Here are a few pictures I took before my camera froze:

Click on Pictures please.

Hurricane Hill 20 Dec 2009

Hi,
Went snowshoeing today, starting at the Hurricane Ridge lodge and hiking to the top of Hurricane Hill in the Olympic mountain range. The clouds parted briefly, yielding some striking scenes; layers of clouds beneath us and a portion of the Olympic Mountain Range opposite of us.

Click on the pics below for nice views.

That is me - the person standing between dwarf trees, freezing in the frozen wilderness
.
My companion frozen hikers are shown below.

Comet Falls 9/2/2009

The waterfalls I hiked to today were very beautiful, powerful, and dynamic forces of nature. I hiked up the west side of Mount Rainier along a deep ravine with rushing streams replete with waterfalls (Christine & Comet, and other small ones).

Above the waterfalls, and at the top high point of my hike was a lower west mountainscape of Mt Rainier; this was called Van Trump Park. Photos show Christine Falls (smallest of the falls), Comet Falls (big waterfall) and Van Trump Park (beautiful mountainscapes).

click Here For Slide Show

Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

I took these pictures while hiking in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on 7/11/2009. This is a State Park in Sequim, WA. The hike begins in an old growth forest, continues to a cliff overview (first slide), then down to the beach, a Spit of sand that protudes 5 miles into the Puget Sound.

Drift wood lines the center of the beach, serving as perch to many birds. There is an old Lighthouse at the very tip of the Spit.

Click here to view the Picture Album


Facebook Slideshow


Facebook Video

Eagle Peak 3/21/2009

Snowshoing on yet another beautiful Saturday in the Tatoosh Mountain Range (near Mt Rainier) reminded me of the unique beauty of our surroundings in the State of Washington. For my Japanese friends reading this, the Tatoosh range is near Seattle, Washington.

The hike was, as always, cold, steep, and magnificient. We proceeded to climb up through an old growth cedar forrest containing of some truely giant trees. One giant was cleaved with a 6 inch wide gnarly vertical crack creeping up from trunk to towering top branches.

Please see the pictures below.

Clicking on a picture should make it much larger.

Tatoosh Range as seen from Eagle Peak ridge

Please click on this picture!

I attempted scrambling up this rocky summit then, after reaching the half-way point, decided it was too risky and am seen slowly, carefully downclimbing.
As you can see, we all had a good time.

Climbing Mount Rainier

On this day I hiked Mt Rainier solo from Paradise to Camp Muir(10,188 feet/ 3105 meters)for an elevation gain of approximately 5000 feet which is 1524 meters. The day was clear, sunny, and warm. Mout Rainier was big and fantastically beautiful - as a mere mortal, I was lucky the mountain allowed me the climb.

Enough said about my Mount Rainier climb. See the pictures below and the videos which humbly depict the mountain in it's majesty!

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE IMAGE

Mount Rainier in all of it's glory

Paul at Camp Muir on Mt Rainier (10,188 feet/ 3105 meters)

View from Camp Muir

Nisqually Glacier on Mt Rainier

Wild Flowers

Wagonwheel Lake

Today three of us hiked up a steep mountain in Olympic National Forest to the high alpine lake called Wagonwheel Lake.

After enjoying views of the pristine lake, we climbed above the lake to a rocky ridge. During this climb, we passed beautiful trailside flowers and spectacular wildflower meadows.

Continuing our ascent, we scrambled up a rocky ridge which rose to the summit of an unnamed peak.

Please enjoy the trip pictures below - IMPORTANT - CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE A BIGGER IMAGE.

Trailside Flower 1


Trailside Flower 2


Trailside Flower 3


Trailside Flower 4


Wagonwheel Lake


Wagonwheel Lake



Wildflower Meadow 1


Wildflower Meadow2


Unnamed Peak


Paul on Unnamed Peak Summit


View From the Summit

Lake Angeles 1/26/2008

After an aborted attempt to reach the Slab Camp trail for a Blue Mountain hike, four car loads of hikers headed over to the more accessible Lake Angeles trailhead. I had just hiked to Lake Angeles two weeks ago, but it was again a nice outing, snowing hard at the lake.

Please view the YouTube video and the pictures below. You will probably need a fast Internet connection to view the movie. Clicking on any picture will yield a LARGE image.

Snowing Hard Near Lake

Break-time at the Lake


Lake Angeles

Lake Angeles 1/13/2008

Today's hike through Olympic National Park provided sunny views of dense, stick-like forests, snow covered Lake Angeles, high mountain ridges, and views from a ridge above the lake of the Puget Sound, Mount Baker, and the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Please view the photographs below - I have captured my favorite trip pictures in the following YouTube movie and still pictures. You will probably need a fast Internet connection to view the movie.

Turn up your speaker volume to hear the crunch of snowshoes and howling wind for the following YouTube movie.

Click on each picture below for a LARGE image:

Winter Treefall

Trail Under Treefall

Forest

Forest Sunshine

Lake Angeles (snow covered)

Ridge Above Lake

View of Puget Sound From Ridge Above Lake

View of Juan de Fuca Strait From Ridge Above Lake

Lake of the Angels in December

During winter, a hike to Lake of the Angels can be as satisfying as it is exhilarating.

Road closures, mud slides, trail washouts, and multiple creek fordings add challenges to be overcome and mastered.

Ron, Mike, Cheryl, and myself (Paul W.) experienced these conditions wrought by Mother Nature; we survived nearly unscathed with only one unanticipated trail cartwheel, multiple unexpected "sit-downs", and a blown-out knee.

Please see the following movie for your enjoyment. Click twice on the "play button" - hover your cursor near bottom of each picture to pause, play, and rewind. Following the slide show are single pictures which produce LARGE images when click on.

Click on the following pictures for larger images: