This was the most beautiful hike I have done in Washington hands down. It helped that we hiked in on a clear evening for the sunset and had a clear morning to witness the sunrise.
We rented snowshoes and poles at Whittaker Mountaineering in Ashford and purchased our parking pass at the gas station right down the road. We drove up to the middle/upper Sno Park parking lot but just barely - there's enough ice and snow on the road leading to the lot now that I would definitely recommend chains or four wheel drive.
We began the hike at about 2:30 pm and it was a steady incline all the way to the top which we reached right before 4:30 pm (just when the sun was setting). The hike itself was not too difficult; the trail was completely groomed, but the incline did warm us up enough to shed a couple of layers on the way up. The views at the top were completely breathtaking and even though it was pretty chilly and a little windy, it was hard to turn away from the views and go inside. As I was taking pictures outside, the cold weather shut my phone down (I have an iphone 7), so be careful to keep your phone warm if you want to catch the best photo ops.
The hut itself was super cozy and warm. There were two separate mud rooms, and one had several pairs of slip on sandals to wear inside the hut so you don't have to track your wet boots in through the living space. The kitchen was fully stocked with dishes, cooking/baking pots and pans, silverware, towels and everything you need in order to make food and clean up after. There were two wooden poles hanging horizontally from the ceiling with hangers that you could pull up and down from the ceiling to hang all of your wet snow gear from to dry. Games and puzzles lined a couple of shelves in the hut and there were two tables to eat at and play games on. The outhouse was really clean and was stocked with tp and hand sanitizer. There was also a little
I woke up at around 6:50 am and figured I would peak outside the window of the upstairs loft where we slept to catch a glimpse of Rainier and when I saw the neon pink/orange from the sunrise next to the mountain, I immediately got my snow clothes and boots on and went outside. This was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever witnessed in Washington. During both the sunset and sunrise, the sky drastically changed colors within minutes so I spent most of my time outside during sunset/sunrise and took spectacular pictures of the views. You can see Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams
Once we had enjoyed the views as much as we could, had breakfast and cleaned up the hut, we left at around 10:15 am and got back to the parking lot at around 11:30 am.
This hike should be on everyone's to do list. I will definitely return sometime this season for another snowshoe excursion!
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