Arrival and parking: it was a gorgeous Saturday. There was an 8 car line up at the entrance at 6:48 am. There is no timed entry at Paradise this year due to road construction but there is timed entry at Sunrise. Heading up to Paradise you can expect up to 30 minutes delay as the road is getting paved. The upper lot by the Jackson Visitor Center was full by 7:00 am. The lower lot by about 7:45. All Paradise parking, including the picnic area by 8:00ish. You can park on the road but so many people do that it is a long walk to the visitor center. If you do end up parking down the road there is a trail that allows you to cut up to the main trail system, it's called 4th Crossing Trail (see map).
Hiked up Golden Gate to Panorama Point via Skyline Trail. I prefer doing thus route counter clockwise as it seems less steep going up. The trail is snow free until the upper most section of Skyline. It's impossible to follow the trail in places as it is snow covered so people just scrambled around on the rocks to circumnavigate snow. Plenty of people were wearing tennis shoes and although it was a bit slippery they made it.
There were 5 mountain goats just below the trail near the top that sat there for hours, just chilling.
The bathroom at Panorama Point is closed due to limited resources. Privacy on this trail is limited, its very exposed, so ducking behind a tree isn't possible. I limited my intake of water accordingly.
Good views of Mt Adams, Hood and St Helens. Wildflowers and marmots were out.
Comments