We used the great weather to take our kids on their first "backpacking" adventure and picked the Carbon River and Ipsut Creek Campground so they could ride their bikes the 5 miles to the camp site and have more fun. It totally worked! We had a great trip out to the campground, there were only three sites taken for Saturday night (including us), so it was super quiet, and we were able to use it as a base camp for a walk further up the Carbon River to see Mt. Rainier itself as well as Ipsut Falls. Grateful for the bear boxes and pit toilet, as they certainly made for an easier backpacking introduction for the 5-year-olds.

There are some snow patches on the trail once you get past the Ipsut Creek Campground, but everything should be gone soon as it was all small patches. All the bridges were there for the Carbon River glacier trail for the couple miles we took it. Lots of skunk cabbage and some trilliums.

On the trip back to the trail head we stopped to see Chenius Falls and Ranger Falls. The Chenius Falls bridges were all in place. The only wildlife we saw were a bunny, squirrel, and frog, but the kids all enjoyed themselves and are ready to do it again.

With the promise of a rare early May sunny weekend we set our sights on an easy overnight trip to work the rust out of bodies and gear. As many are aware, the former road up Carbon River has been closed to vehicles due to floods in 2006. It is, however, a really nice bike trip to the Ipsut campground (about 5 miles). There are still sections that are pretty rough, but the ride up was uneventful as we cycled through intermittent rain and sun. The campground had only 2 other groups in it so we had loads of quiet. The boys spent the better part of the afternoon/evening running up and down the river and doing what boys do best. Overnight temps weren't too bad and the next morning we were rewarded with cloudless blue sky and sun! The ride back down to the Ranger station was a lot of fun as it is almost all downhill, requiring little work. The sun had brought out the crowds and we passed at least 30 people dayhiking. All in all, a great, underutilized hike really close to town.

The Carbon River Road is closed just at the entry to the park due to a large flood in 2006 and ongoing erosion. The walk along the road is quite pleasant and there are reroutes around or repairs of the most egregious washouts making the hike to Ipsut Campground a great early season hike. The first 2 miles are through older growth forest and one doesn't get a view of the river until the after this sectoin. Actually, during the 2006 flood the river decided to come quite a bit closer to the road, so it is now meandering through still standing trees right next to the road. After the first 2 miles the road comes out of the trees and one can get nice views up the river valley.

The road was totally snow-free until the Chenuis Falls trailhead (closed) and almost totally snow-cover afterwards. There are a number of very rocky and/or muddy sections within 1 mile of Ipsut Campground, but all of the blowdowns have been dealt with. There was still a good amount of deep snow at the campground, but a couple of overnight campers managed to fine a clear area to camp. The campground is posh with a number of bear boxes, picnic tables and out houses complete with TP and hand sanitizer.

All told walking on the road was nice, but did leave our feet and legs a bit more worn out than walking on an equivalent section of real trail. Or that could just be due to this being the first 10 mile hike of the season.

Walked the road to Ipsut Campground, I was suprised by all the work they have done here the past few months, new signs, bear boxes, restrooms & patrol cabin. Props to all that did this work! Snow was deep at the campground snowshoes required for continuing on past here. Great cold day in the woods.