We headed out of South Puyallup backcountry camp (permit only) early to catch sunrise at Emerald Ridge. Remember to water up because there is little to be found on the Ridge.
In the process we were not yielded a lot of trail etiquette uphill with all the trail runners coming down. If you are going up, it is polite to stop get off trail, cover your face and let the uphill folks come up. Few did and most just kept running off trail onto the delicate plants.
Emerald Ridge is stunning clockwise. The Tahoma Glacier carved out deeply to the north and the colors of the rock and soil are in colorful contrast to the greens and blues of the mountain sky. It is breathtaking.
We saw a lot of bear scat on the south side of the ridge just ahead of the Tahoma Suspension Bridge.
Tahoma used to have an unmaintained trail that led to the Westside Rd we could rock hop or butt scoot across logs to get to but the park is really advising not too and has put up new signage this year to not go on this trail.
There is a nice water access however just a few 100 yards down the Tahoma unmaintained trail that you can use prior to heading to Indian Henry's.
Comments