Autumn Colors, Naches Peak Loop Trail and Lake Tipsoo

Mom and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather in mid-October--this is pretty unusual for the PNW because it is usually cold and raining by now.  I asked her if she wanted to go do Naches Peak Loop Trail off of 410 near Mount Rainier and Lake Tipsoo and she said sure.  I've wanted to do this hike for a while and found it in one of my hiking books which reminded me to cross it off my list.  I told her she could bring her camera and we could take some autumn pictures since the foliage was beautiful on the mountain this time of year. 

I told her to be at my house around 9 a.m. the next day.  We asked Erika and Doug if they wanted to go, and they said no.  Probably because they couldn't bring their dogs.  This technically wasn't in Mount Rainier National Park, but this area was overseen by the National Park Service--which doesn't allow dogs.  Ben had another 24-hour shift at the station.  He tried to get all of his shifts out of the way earlier in the month so he could enjoy the weekends during the rest of the month.

I went to bed way too late the night before but made sure I had everything ready including a couple of Earthcaches for International Earthcache Day--just in case we made it to Sunrise.  I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get there, walk the three mile plus loop and what time of the day it was by the time we got done. 

I got up around 8:30, got ready, dressed and saw I had to print off a NW Forest Pass, so I did that while I waited for Mom to get here.  She said she got stuck behind construction by the Yelm Highway corner by the elementary school after I called her wondering why she wasn't at my house yet.  I gathered some food and drinks, made myself a breakfast of grapes, half a blueberry bagel and yogurt while I waited.  I made sure I had my GPS and put everything we needed into the Escape.

I was ready to go when she got here but we didn't leave until almost 9:30 because Mom dilly dallied with the dog. I finally got her in the Escape, and we left.  

We got onto I-5 and headed north--no traffic but missed the highway 512 exit because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.  We got off at the River Road exit in Tacoma instead, got onto 167 and then merged onto 410 through Bonney Lake.  It was very slow through Bonney Lake...I believe we stopped at every single light.

We finally got through Bonney Lake and into Buckley and eventually to Enumclaw.  It's been a while since I've been there.  We followed 410 up the grade and had to stop for about 15-20 minutes between Green River and the Crystal Mountain cutoff because of "construction."  I was annoyed because we were almost to where we needed to be, and I wanted to start our hike.  I wasn't sure what the parking situation was going to be like since we arrived in the area so late in the day. 

We got to the trailhead parking lot just before noon and just as expected, there weren't any parking spots because the place was a literal zoo of people. We looked around and finally found a parking spot on the side of the road near the bridge over Hwy 410.  It would make it easy to find the Escape after we were done.  We made sure we were off the road as far as possible but gave Mom some room so she could get out of the passenger side door.  I put my socks and hiking shoes on, as did Mom, grabbed our packs with water and food inside and made our way up to the trail.  I wish I would have used the restroom before we went but there was a HUGE line, so I said nope, and just tried not to think about it.

We walked the loop clockwise as suggested by the WTA website so you could see Mount Rainier in front of you rather than behind you.  They also mentioned that the hike is better overall clockwise anyway.

We started up where the PCT meets up with the Naches Peak Loop Trail.  We followed the trail up and it was really busy at first, but then we started to get away from the groups of people to where it was a nice hike; we tend to walk faster than the people in front of us.  The autumn colors were amazing, and it was really hard to get some of our photos without people in them.  We did our best.

The trail gradually went up in elevation subtly. Mom and I were in pretty good shape, so we didn't really struggle like some people did that we passed.  The first place we stopped and admired was a few unnamed alpine lakes while we took a water and photo break.  There were lots of people at this location, so we didn't stay for very long.  We continued on the PCT part of the Naches Peak Loop Trail.  We passed a lot of people walking the opposite way.

We made our way up to the top of the first side of our loop.  There were a bunch of people up here enjoying the views and taking short water and rest breaks.  This is where you could really see the autumn colors mixed in with the green trees.  We stood there for a few minutes and took a bunch of pictures.  Some lady overheard us talking about trying not to get her in our pictures...mostly because most people don't want to be in other people's pictures.  She said she would move, and we told her she was fine to stay there and that we would move to get the shots we wanted.

We moved on and made it to the junction of where the PCT continued on south towards Dewey Lake and it curved around to the southwest on the Naches Peak Loop Trail. 

This took us into the meadow part of the trail and our first view of Mount Rainier.  We stopped several times within the meadow to take pictures of the mountain.  We found a spot along the trail with a great unobstructed view of it, but we had to wait in line because there were a bunch of people wanting to take selfies and group shots.  Mom and I waited for our turn to get one.

We shared one last view of Mount Rainier before moving along.  It was such a nice day to be out hiking.  The weather was sure kind to us through half of October so we could continue doing stuff like this before the rain and bad weather set in.  We got stuck behind a few people and had to be patient to pass them because there were some narrow points to the trail as we made our way back towards Lake Tipsoo and the parking lot.  Even though Mount Rainier was obstructed throughout the last half of the hike, there were still some great views of the valleys and surrounding forest land.

I told Mom that we should try to plan to come here again and next time try to see if we can get more people to come with us.  She said that she would come again and that it would be fun with more people.  We got closer to the other trailhead where Hwy 410 crosses and I told Mom that I couldn't hold it anymore, so we found a place off the trail to pee.  Afterwards, we found a place to sit and eat our lunch.  I brought a sandwich and some Fritos.  Mom brought some cheese, apples and grapes. I asked her if she was ready to go explore Lake Tipsoo and she said yes!

We crossed Hwy 410 and there were tons and tons of people wandering around not paying attention.  I am surprised no one ran over anyone. We decided to explore the east side of the lake and wrap around to where the trail connected with the PCT again. Lake Tipsoo is an alpine lake at an elevation of 5298 feet above sea level in the northern Cascade Range near the summit of Chinook Pass in Pierce County.  The area is popular among hikers, photographers and travelers who use this route to cross over into Eastern Washington.  It is very picturesque with various colors of native plants and have stunning views of Mount Rainier and other nearby peaks. 

We spent a bit taking photos, enjoying the view of Mount Rainier and dodging tourists. We made our way to the other side and connected with the final quarter of a mile of our 3.3-mile hike before we got back to the Escape. We noticed that spots had opened up along the road, but someone had parked really close to me.  Luckily, there was some room in front of me so I could pull up so we could open the trunk.  I changed my shoes, got inside and heard that the Mariners were down to the Blue Jays 4-0.  Bummer, we needed this win to continue on with our wildcard run in the playoffs. We had already won the first game of the series, 4-0, the day before.

We left the area and continued down Hwy 410.  I wanted to stop on the road to Sunrise to grab two earthcaches but on the way there we had to stop for some reason.  I didn't want to wait in the giant line of cars, so we turned around and left.  I thought about armchair logging them but then decided we could come back next summer to do some of the hikes at Sunrise too.  I guess I won't log an earthcache for a souvenir this year.  Oh well.  The Mariniers had a terrible 5th inning and were down 8-1. 

We drove down Hwy 410 and got closer to Enumclaw.  I asked Mom if she wanted to eat something, and she said she wanted pizza.  She looked up the pizza places offered in town.  She saw that the Pizza Hut was the cheapest so that's where we went.  I remember coming here with Bob and Bev many years ago.  We parked, went inside and we were the only ones inside the restaurant, so the service was prompt. We ordered a thin crust with pepperoni and black olives, salad and these small apple pie thingies.  It hit the spot.  We ate and slowly watched the Mariners chip away at their deficit.   

When we were done, I wanted to do the Adventure Lab in town.  Most of the waypoints were in downtown so we found a place to park, and we walked.  Meanwhile, we drove through town and saw a ton of people dressed like witches walking around town.  The town of Enumclaw holds an annual witch's night out every second weekend of October.  We just happened to be in town to see it.  

We walked around the town gathering up the five waypoints, went back to the Escape and grabbed the bonus cache, A Brief History of Enumclaw BONUS (GC8WCQ6).  It was located at the south end of town.  It was literally replaced that day by Sean (PhatBldGuy). I got out and grabbed it while Mom sat in the Escape.  

We found out that the Mariners came back 10-9 and swept the Blue Jays.  What a comeback!  We now face the Astros in the first round of the playoffs. 

We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Bonney Lake because Mom wanted ice cream on the way home.  I got a strawberry shake, and she got a hot fudge sundae.  We took Hwy 410 to 167 to 512.  We merged onto I-5 and didn't hit any traffic.  We stopped at the Walmart in Hawks Prairie and the Michaels in Lacey because Mom needed to pick up a few things while we were in town.  

We went back to my house, unloaded the Escape, put the stuff in Mom's Expedition and she went home.  I went over to Alicia's house to take care of her dogs.  I went home, showered, did some laundry, cleaned up the house a little bit, ate popcorn and watched some football.  I went to bed around 1:30.

Weekend Fun:  Bonney Lake, Pumpkin Patch, Canadian Friends and Elton John at the Tacoma Dome