Tolmie Peak Lookout - Eunice Lake — Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich

After finding all our overnight wishes to be snow-filled and not all that accessible yet, we opted to do a day hike to Tolmie Peak Lookout. The drive was filled with wet-ish windshields from the low ceiling and we were hoping we would be above the clouds which proved to be mostly true. We arrived at the trailhead with quite a few cars present and snow all over the place. The trail can be found pretty easily and off we went. Mowich lake was quite pretty with wisps of fog here and there, snow on the trail here and there, a little muddy in places but nothing that was nasty. Eunice Lake was totally snowed in with relatively rare patches of earth--mainly in the forest around the lake but not much dirt showing near the lake. The lake itself still has quite a lot of ice on it which seemed so odd to see given it is August 6th! Route finding to Tolmie Peak Lookout wasn't too tough to do, which then created a nice boot path for those following in our footsteps. Once off the lakeshore, there were small patches of snow going up to the Lookout. At the top, we were rewarded for our efforts with glimpses of Mt. Rainier as the fog came and went from the lake below. We patiently waited and hoped The Mountain would come out for us, but alas, only the tippy top could we see. However, it was sunny, we ate lunch at the Lookout and enjoyed the sort-of view without any bugs at all...that was a nice surprise! A great day in the mountains, and we came back to even more cars in the parking lot wondering where all those people were from those cars as we didn't pass by all that many people either coming up or going down the trail. Fun fun day.....