I recently hiked to Henskin Lake from the base of Crystal Mountain Resort up to the Crystal Mountain summit. This time around, I had friends with a kid with me, so we decided to take the gondola up and hike downhill to make this a bit more relaxed/family-friendly. We stopped to have snacks and enjoy the scenery at Elizabeth Lake and Henskin Lake. The bugs were eating us alive, so we didn't stay long. The views were outstanding as always, though smoke started to roll in by mid-morning obscuring the views of Mt. Rainier.
Having now done this hike in both directions, I tend to prefer the uphill direction. Going uphill, the views get better and better the whole way up. And, you get the big reward of seeing Mount Rainier large and in charge after all the work to get to the summit. While it was far less exerting to go downhill, we were all complaining about our knees aching towards the end of the hike. The pretty views also start to peter out shortly after Henskin Lake.
We arrived at the parking lot a little after 10:30AM with plenty of parking available, open restrooms, and resort concessions open for food and drink purchases. This is going to be our go-to out of town visitor hike from now on.
PRO TIP: We learned that buying a gondola ticket gets you TWO rides up to and down from the summit. Because of this, we took the gondola up to start our hike, hiked down to the base, picked up our picnic stuff at the car, and then took the gondola back up to enjoy lunch at the summit.
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