I went out with my dog and climbed Gobblers Knob on probably the last clear day of the season. This route is probably the easiest access to Gobblers Knob. I hiked the Puyallup Trail #248, starting from the end of FS road 59. The trail starts at the same starting point as the Glacier View Trail. The hike is fairly flat for the first 2 miles or so, then goes up (though not that steep) for the last mile up to the Knob. Total mileage approx 6 miles rt. Amazing VIEWS!!! Took FS road 59 9 miles to the end (catching an awesome mtn view along the way). Road is steep and a little rough for the first 4-5 miles, but nothing my '89 K-car couldn't handle. Some puddles and potholes, but not too bad. After reaching a high point, the road markedly improves until the end. The trail is marked Puyallup Trail #248. Immediately I caught some sneaks of Rainier through the trees. I arrived at Beljica meadows shortly, and treaded along to Goat Lake. Goat lake is peaceful, but there are bugs. The trail all the way to Goat Lake is fairly flat and easy, but then it starts to go up. I reached a fork in the trail just after leaving the lake, left to Gobblers Knob, right to Lake Christine (another approach some people come from). I went left and started heading up. The trail climbs steadily through the forest, and soon I noticed the boundary of the National park. There were more downed trees and over growth in the np, but all easy to manage. Before I knew it, I started getting glimpses of the mountain, and was writing in anticipation for the view at the top. There is a fire lookout with a porch that makes a great place to sit and stare at the mountain. It was a very clear day, and was able to see St. Helens, Hood, the Olympics, Tacoma and Goat Lake I was just at the shores of. I spent about an hour at the top enjoying the views, then headed back down the same way. For the effort put in, and the reward I got from this hike, it has to be one of the best hikes I've been on. This hike must be done on a clear day, not much to offer if clouds are blocking the mountain view. The trip took me 1.5 hours both ways, plus an hour spent at the top. While it is somewhat steep the last mile, this hike can be easily be done with kids or families. I was in complete solitude on the entire hike. I didn't see one person the entire trip.

On Thursday we drove to Longmire to get permits for a two night hike. Unfortunately, our desired campsites (Klapatche Park and South Puyallup River) where booked, so we settled on spending our first night at North Puyallup River and our second night at Lake George. This demanded us to hike 10.6 miles from the Westside Road trail head to the North Puyallup River via the old Westside Road, with the exception of taking Round Pass Trail, and a small detour to Denham falls which broke up the monotony of road hiking. In fact, I was surprised to find out that the North Puyallup River campsite is built on the old road bed. This meant the entire trail was gradual elevation gains and losses. The only difficulties was a small 1 mile section of the North Puyallup Trail which was overgrown. Apparently the trail crew that was "mowing" down this section of trail stopped 2/3rds of the way in. Even though I was in shorts, I didn't get beat up to badly, and it certainly wasn't bad enough to require a machete. The North Puyallup River Campground is in a bit of a "hole" which means it doesn't get a lot of sunlight and GPS signals are weak. That night we had two other groups that where doing the full wonderland trail camping with us. The next morning was our most difficult day. ~2,000 feet of elevation gain hiking 2.8 miles (but on my GPS watch it thought it was only 2 miles) up to Klapatche Park. This hill is all north facing which made it nice and cool. We encountered a few snow patches, but nothing to bad. At the top, the view was absolutely stunning! The alpine meadows meld with alpine lakes and spectacular Mt. Rainier vistas. This is what we came to soak in, so we dilly-dallied and ate lunch between Klapatche Park and St. Andrews Lake, but at last, it was getting close to 2PM and we still had a good 7 miles of hiking to do, so we descended the ridge and went to the South Puyallup Campground. Between St. Andrews Lake and the South Puyallup campground there are a few tricky snow fields where you can get lost if you are not paying attention... and if it had been icy, I would have felt much less comfortably traversing these sections. At the South Puyallup campground we had to say goodbye to the wonderland trail and hike the South Puyallup Trail to Rounds Pass, then Rounds Pass to Gobblers Knob trail and camp at Lake George. There is some nice columnar basalt not more than 0.1 miles off the wonderland trail. This is a very beautiful rock formation, and definitely a worthwhile diversion if you are planning on sticking to the wonderland trail. We got into Lake George at about 5PM, set-up camp and ate dinner. From Lake George, the view of Mt. Rainier is obscured by trees, but it does give you a taste of what the vista is like from Gobblers Knob. So, I put on my sandals and hiked the 1,000 feet of elevation/1.6 miles up to Gobblers Knob as fast as I could so there would be enough sunlight to get back off the Knob before sunset. This took me about 40 minutes at a brisk pace. There are a few snow fields along this trail. One snow field is over the outlet of a very small lake. Be careful to traverse over the snow covered bridge to avoid falling into the creek. The view at Gobblers Knob was arguably the best view of Mt. Rainier all day. Up at Klapatche Park you are almost "to close" to the mountain, but the view from Gobblers Knob is still close enough to be "in your face". The next morning we hiked back out to the Westlake Road trail head in under 2 hours. Note that bugs are an issue everywhere, so be sure to bring DEET.

First an important note: the GPS flag on the website here is wrong, it leads to a different trailhead about 1.5 mi from Gobblers Knob. Follow Forest Service Road 59 the entire way, without varying from it, as the written directions tell you to. There is still snow on parts of the trail, and parts are overgrown or have large trees fallen through the trail. However, while we were there a Forest Service crew was hard at work, and had already cleared portions of it by the time we went down, so chances are good trail will be clear within a few days, though it's unlikely the snow will melt at all this year. Also an important note: when you reach the trailhead, it says nothing about Gobblers Knob or Goat Lake initially, and when you reach the first split in the trail (just above the parking lot), the sign does not indicate which way to go. Go right, following the Puyallup trail, which will take you to the summit after 4 miles or so. This portion of the trail is uncrowded until you reach the summit, and bugs are only a problem in the meadows, with no bugs at the summit. View is spectacular!

Patches of snow start at the hairpin in the road. The actual trail from Round Pass is mostly covered in snow, and by about half a mile in, it's completely covered still. This is where I turned around. Other than that, the trail was beautiful, with awesome views of The Mountain as you climb up from the trail head.

I set out to complete this hike which we had tried in early July but were not able to complete because of snow. I parked at the gate at the end of the Westside road just inside the Mount Rainier Nisqually entrance at noon straight up. The day was beautiful with broken clouds and a trail-head temperature of about 72 degrees. I proceeded through the recent washout area and wound around about three miles to Round Pass where the Lake George trail is lightly marked onthe left. The real hike begins here with a steady climb up the short distance to Lake George. I expected, but did not encounter too many bugs. Perhaps the consistant light breeze was keeping them in check. From Lake George, the trail steepens. You gain about 1500 feet in elevation in 1.6 miles of hiking. Again, the temperatures were conducive to the extreme effort having dropped to mid 60's. The last little pitch at the top of the trail seemed very rocky and intimidating but was actually quite navigable. The view from the top did not dissapoint. Rainier dominates the 360 degree panorama. Saint Helens was clearly in view. Adams is obscured by an adjacent hill. I was unable to make out Hood due to the hazy atmosphere, but on a clearer day, I am sure you could see it. Overall, the trail is in great shape but next time I will try to get an earlier start. This is not a trail for children as it is pretty exposed on the upper reaches. Even though I was able to rest at the top for 30 minutes without any apparent bugs, I would reccomend bringing repellant. Also bring plenty of water. This time of year there is none on the trail except Lake George and even with filtration - yuck!