Gold Creek - Devils Slide — Monday, Jun. 24, 2024

Ethan, Brenda, Jonah, & I headed up the Gold Creek Trail on this sunny, mild day.  We stopped along the way to climb up to the rim of Devil's Slide for its good view of Mt Rainier.  We then continued on to the top and the Bald Mtn Rd, turned right, and walked maybe 1/2 mile out the the wide open view over the headwaters of the Lefthand Fork of Rock Creek and out to Mt Adams, Mt Aix, Nelson Ridge, and Mt Rainier.  We stayed our usual hour or so and then headed back the way we had come.  The trail is quite rocky in places due to motorized use which makes for some hard walking (the minor obstacles).  There were wildflowers every step of the way.  The most predominant were larkspur, lupine, and groundsel along with quite a few blue forget-me-nots.  We also saw the uncommon dwarf and Nevada lewisias.  The dwarf lewisia was especially profuse.  We didn't see any wildlife except for some chipmunks and no other hikers, but a caravan of jeeps showed up at the trailhead shortly after we arrived and later drove up the 4-wheel drive road that shares the trail for a while.  We could see them in the distance climbing the hill, but they were so far ahead of us that they weren't a disturbance.  Some beautiful cirrus clouds drifted over on the way up.