Grand Park via Lake Eleanor — Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

This was my first time visiting the Grand Park. It was amazing!

Weather was nearly perfect and we had the entire trail to ourselves for all but an hour or so. A group of 4 passed us near the end of the hike in and we all were at the valley overlook at the same time. After they headed back down we never saw another person the rest of the day.

It was very dry and the Grand Park had no green vegetarian, but the fall colors and views of Rainier made up for that. I can't wait to go back next year when the vegetation is blooming as I can't even imagine how much better that will make it. Although one nice thing about it being so dry right now was no mosquitoes or flies buzzing around AT ALL! First hike of the year with nary a bug in sight. :)

Not much wildlife. Lots of elk tracks seen but only some grouse and a couple chipmunks were spotted. Lots of different mushrooms. There was a warning sign at the start about a cougar approaching a backpacker recently in the area but we didn't see any tracks for a big cat. Not sure how old that warning was.

The uphills were steep in several places but there was a good mix of not as steep parts in between so it felt like a mellower hike.

After the "crowd" at the valley view we hiked back to the T intersection and headed down the southern trail to the top of a knoll about .6 miles away or so. Ended up making the whole day an 11 mile hike.