Stats
- Distance: 11 miles
- Duration: 5 hours
- Vertical: 2654 feet
- Weather: Warm, mid to high 80s, light wind as times to knock down bugs, significant haze around Rainier
- Takeaway: First time on this trail, beautiful flowers, bugs; need to return to complete Tamanos summit; favorite part of the trail was Owyhigh Lakes to Tamanos saddle; missed peak for some of the flowers, but paintbrush appears to be peaking now
Good end to the work week with a hike to Owyhigh Lakes and (part way up) Tamanos. Enjoyed the freshly resurfaced road to the trailhead! I parked in the overflow lot about 200 yards east of the trailhead, but there was no need as plenty of parking at the trailhead itself (but limited to 7 spots).
The first 3 miles of the trail are in the forest, but this is no second-growth densely packed forest with little interest. Instead lots of old growth trees (the chunky bark of some reminding me of house shingles), diffused light, and general interest, including a number of waterfalls (nearer the top) and peek-a-boo views at the corners of the switchbacks into adjacent valleys. There were few people, so I was hoping to see wildlife, but only saw mule deer today. A mile or so before you exit the woods, there is a campsite to the left of the trail (still away from the bugs at this point!).
The mosquitos start when you exit the woods and enter the meadows a 1/2 mile or so before the lakes. I would not say they were terrible (as described in my Spray Park report), but they were a nuisance for sure. I applied bug juice but did not bother with the netting that I purposefully packed. I did not have exposed skin (sun protection), so the bites I did get were through my clothes. The few people I passed were talking about that bugs... one group about research to generically modify mosquitos to prevent their breeding (they must have had a rough night!)
You can see in my Garmin screenshot below that I Immediately slowed down in the meadows. I wandered slowly thru flowers, butterflies and humming birds. The flowers vary a lot on this route. They are definitely past in the early meadows, peak in the more shaded areas between the Lakes and the turnoff to Tamanos, and are somewhat otherworldly on the open slopes up to the Tamanos saddle. Here you can see orange colored slopes from a distance given the explosion of paintbrush at high elevation. This reminded me a bit of Sage Hills earlier this spring. Definitely more flowers on this hike than my recent Burroughs hike, as generally lower elevation and wetter, but not quite the Spray Park profusion. The mix of flowers changes with elevation, but the primary flowers right now are Paintbrush (both magenta and red), Lupine, Western Pasqueflower (amazing!), Alpine Aster, Red Columbine, Heather and Yarrow.
The lakes are pleasant, but for me the highlight was the boot-trail up to Tamanos saddle. The turnoff is not difficult to find; the trail reached a "Y" and you head right/uphill. This part of the trail is steep, with wide open, "the hills are alive" kinds of lush slopes, but a narrow (ditchy) and dusty trail. It reminded me a bit of the (early) trail up to Alta Peak past Rachel Lake with the lush green and flowered slopes. With each footstep, grasshoppers and butterflies ran/flew for cover. The views of grassy slopes are expansive - this would be a great place for wildlife spotting later in the day. I would recommend binoculars!
Once you reach the Tamanos saddle on a high ridge, there was wide-open views of Rainier and Sunrise at the West (although a little hazy), and an even steeper trail up to Tamanos peak to the right. I did a bit of ridge exploring (there are trails in both directions on the ridge), but turned around at the saddle with a plan to summit Tamanos on a cooler day.
The hike is moderate for the most part. The hike from the Lakes to the saddle has some steepness, but also an "off trail, exploratory" feeing (though a proper path so no worries) that is liberating (the lack of people also helping that feeling).
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