Took advantage of the long days of summer by doing a quick weekday evening jaunt up Tolmie Peak in Mount Rainier NP. The Mowich Lake Road is long and unpaved, but aside from a few washboard sections goes pretty quick. By the time I took off on the Wonderland Trail it was about 5:15 pm and summit of Mount Rainier was in a thick cloud. It seemed like the entire state was under clear blue skies except for the northern aspect of Rainier, and I was pretty pessimistic about any clearing for sunset. I resolved to just enjoy the hike and hopefully take in some of the more immediate views and wildflowers.
Traveling on the Wonderland Trail is a dream. In this section it is wide and well graded and lends itself to fast hiking. Before long (about 1 mile) I was turning off at Ipsut pass towards Eunice Lake. Here the trail drops down a bit to skirt some rocky cliffs before climbing up to the lake via some switchbacks. I was at the lake before I knew it and saw the impressive cliffs of Tolmie Peak above me. I was blown away by the fields of lupine that painted the meadows a purple color around the lake.
From here, it was another short jaunt up to the old lookout site. Rainier was still shrouded in clouds, but it was still an impressive vantage point. As I headed out past the lookout to the true summit, views were had back towards Puget Sound, which is always a cool site to see. The path out to the true summit (which appears to only be slightly higher than the lookout site) is well defined, albeit a bit narrow in places. The south side of this ridge drops precipitously down to the lake below, making for an interesting view.
Hopes were still low for any clearing, but I still was planning on relaxing on the summit for a while just in case. As it turned out, the clouds slowly started to dwindle away as sunset drew closer! At first, just small glimpses of the mountain were visible, but before long most of the glacier-clad volcano was revealed. Sunset was spectacular and reaffirmed the fact that it is often worth it to just go even if the conditions don’t seem 100% perfect. Low expectations were definitely exceeded on this night.
During the course of sunset, I had gotten to talking to one of my fellow revelers, James. He was a very nice guy, and we made the quick hike out back to Mowich Lake together. All in all, this was a super worthwhile sunset spot and after-work adventure.
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