Tolmie Peak Lookout - Eunice Lake — Friday, Sep. 2, 2011

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich

I think this is our family’s fifth time of making it up to Tolmie Peak on the final day of summer vacation. This year we broke with our usual approach of trying to be among the first to the parking lot and followed the advice of the WTA trip reports who suggest an evening visit. This turned out great for us! After the obligatory stop by the Back Diamond bakery for two loaves of Crystal Mountain bread, we got to the trailhead around 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. There were no cars! Parking for the walk-in campground down the road looked pretty full however, this looking to be a gorgeous sun filled Labor Day weekend. We were promptly welcomed by mosquitos, who left us alone once we got moving. The trail follows Mowich lake for the first quarter mile, pops over a low divide and drops down to avoid a cliff band. The wildflowers are out. At 0.9 miles we checked out the slot of Ipsut Pass. Then we dropped below another band of cliffs and passed by the “steps for the giant trolls.” At 1.4 miles the trail starts to climb back up, but first we took a break where everyone has to land a stone on top of the tall stump. At 1.9 miles we arrived at the sign for Eunice Lake and headed left for Tolmie Peak. The trail and lake are completely free of snow, and we were fine in our running shoes. We learned another advantage of heading up in the late afternoon: the 600’ (aka one Space Needle) climb up to the lookout becomes nicely shaded. As we arrived, Rainier remained hidden behind clouds. The bugs were present but tolerable; we hung around and enjoyed our hearty sandwiches, and sure enough the mountain came out around 6pm or so. We headed out after a short while because we wanted to check out the sand beach at the east end of Eunice Lake. We got to the spot to find the salamanders running for cover. We stayed until the sun dropped behind the ridge. We took it easy going out and arrived at Mowich to find Rainier glowing through the trees. We got back around 8pm. We had brought headlamps but did not need to use them. For more photos from our trips to Tolmie Peak: http://seattlewalks.blogspot.com/2011/09/tolmie-peak.html “Before you go:” Link to National Park Service hike information: http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/tolmie-peak.htm .