This is a magical, lesser-known loop in Mount Rainier National Park which covers a wide variety of terrain and has some really standout features and views. Additionally, due to the mileage and its location, you will probably not run into many other people in this loop. (We saw 1 backpacker the whole time).
Getting There
I'd never been down West Side Road, but there is a pretty obvious turn for it just passed the Nisqually entrance station on the southwest side of the park.
This road is well maintained with no concerns for low clearance vehicles. The "trailhead" is the end of the drivable road, a few miles in. There are no National Park amenities here - closest are probably the Honey Buckets in Longmire. We arrived around 8:45 am on Thursday and there was one other vehicle.
West Side Road
To start this hike, you will need to follow the closed road for a few miles. There is a gate prohibiting cars from passing but it is open to hikers and bikers. It is beautiful this time of year, following the valley of Tahoma Creek, with waterfalls to your left and a healthy flowing creek on your right. Wildflowers can be seen here as well.
The "washout" which caused the road closure appears pretty unremarkable ~1 mile in. A little under 2 miles along the road you will hit the turnoff to the Tahoma Creek Trail, marked by a barrel for waste disposal. The trail entrance is easy to miss, but the barrel not so much.
Tahoma Creek Trail
This trail is not maintained due to a huge recent washout. In the current "trail" you can simply follow the creek bed all the way up to the first major attraction, the Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge.
Don't worry about losing the trail here; as long as you are following the water, you will eventually make it there.
We opted out of bushwhacking to find the actual trail, and instead rock hopped our way all the way up the creek to the bridge. This method requires some fast feet and some minor scrambling in parts, but there were no large creek crossings and mostly larger boulders which make for easier traversal. Poles would definitely be useful along this stretch for balance.
After about 2 miles there will be a waterfall on your right, and shortly afterwards the Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge will come into view. We had gained ~1300' from the trailhead by this point.
Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge
The bridge is pretty amazing and a decently remote and secluded attraction in Rainier NP. It connects in with the Wonderland Trail, and given the challenges getting to it, we were the only ones there when we visited. If approaching from the creek bed, you will need to do some pretty challenging class 3ish rock scrambling to make it up to the actual bridge. Disclaimer: Do not do this if it is out of your comfort zone; it may be much more prudent to backtrack and/or bushwhack into the woods to find the true (overgrown) Tahoma Creek trail. This is mentioned in one of the below reports, but is not what we ended up doing.
The bridge itself is in beautiful shape, though it is very unnerving getting out into the middle of it where it can become pretty shakey. The boards are all stable. Follow the signs and limit the crossing to one person at a time.
Emerald Ridge
On the west side of the bridge, you will connect with the first stretch of well-maintained trail, the Wonderland Trail. It's about 2 miles up to Emerald Ridge from here and another 1500'.
The switchbacks start pretty early, and it is a moderate, but well spread out incline. About halfway up to the Ridge the trail began having intermittent snow covering before being completely covered. The snow is soft and slushy this time of year, so we did use our microspikes. I had poles, but also never felt any need to use them.
Follow the snowfield up (just keep heading towards the ridgeline). The tracks were pretty weak, so we ended up just relying mostly on GPS to guide us up to the ridge. The visibility during this section was 10 feet in front of us, which was unfortunate.
Topping out at the ridge line was still pretty cool. After following the ridge for a quarter of a mile you will begin the 2 mile descent down to the next section of trail, the South Puyallup trail.
There is off-and-on snow throughout this section. Make sure to have your GPS guide as well here, as we followed some tracks that took us completely off trail. Once we realized this we ended up having to bushwhack to get back to the main trail, which significantly slowed our progress. After making it back to the main trail, we made good time heading down until the trail intersected with the South Puyallup Trail.
South Puyallup Trail
At the intersection continue straight to hop off the Wonderland Trail and onto the South Puyallup. The intersection is very well signed.
This trail follows the river through beautiful trees, dropping your down from an overhead view to get you right up next to the river. Pretty soon you'll see the backpacker camp, which had nobody in it when we passed. Near that area is an amazing attraction of this hike, the andesite pillars. These have to be seen to be believed, but they are basically hexagonal pillars a la Devil's Postpile. The patterns and waves they form are enticingly beautiful and stunning. The rest of the trail continues its descent through very tall trees until you hit a junction for Round Pass. Take this junction.
Round Pass
The Round Pass connector trail is 0.6 miles but gives you another 300-400' elevation gain, so be warned. It's a bit of a kicker towards the end of your hike.
It eventually breaks back out on to West Side road, about 1 mile from where you entered Tahoma Creek trail.
West Side Road
Head down this windy road, past the poop barrel, and back to your car.
Overall, this was an awesome loop which gave an amazing taste of Mount Rainier NP without even requiring The Mountain to be out. We clocked in at 13.5 miles and 3100' of gain total in 6 hours and 30 mins. While not incredibly challenging, this trail offers a bit more than your standard National Park tourist hike, with varied terrain and beautiful views, as well as standout attractions of the Suspension Bridge and anthracite columns.
Shout out to Alice and Brian who we ran into at the end of their Wonderland journey. Great to meet you both!
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