Castle Mountain — Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2020

Wanted to find trail to summit Castle Mountain near Norse Peak.  Decided to go up Coral Pass Road- to Rainier View trail and explore area.  Coral Pass road is closed so makes trip a longer with having to get up to Coral Pass without driving.  This is in a large burned out area from the Norse Peak fire several years ago, the Coral Pass area was severely burned, but there were lots of wildflowers coming back and in bloom at this time.  Amazing coverage with wild strawberries!  It was nice to see plant life returning, last year in many areas saw little recovery occurring, but here was lots of beautiful coverage of especially lupine and strawberries.  Found Rainier View Trail, followed it through the wildflower areas, up to ridges with great views of Mt Rainier.  Found a connector trail to Castle Mountain trail but in several miles the trail kind of disappears with fire damage and criss-crossing game trails.  Started getting late so headed back.  Absolutely beautiful at this time of year.  Hot and dry- need adequate water.  Once at Coral Pass saw no-one for several hours-except crew of Forest Service workers attempting repairs in the area. 

    All in all a beautiful hike with lots of solitude, but you does require about 14 miles of trail and 3500 ft gain.  Most all of the mileage and elevation gain is just in getting to Coral Pass, once there not much more elevation gain unless you elect to climb some of the peaks in the area, which are highly rewarding with the views.  There are areas where you get to see some of the extent of the area that was burned- once you see that and know this is only part of the entire fire-its really amazing to realize what a large area burned!

   Didn't make true summit- or at least castle appearing area summit-hope to get back there- any suggestions on summit routes welcome.