Green Lake — Saturday, Sep. 22, 2018

Thought I’d spend National Public Lands Day at Mt. Rainier, so decided to do a hike to Green Lake. First two questions that came to mind were: 1) Why had I not done this before, and 2) why are more people not doing it? Absolutely beautiful hike and a lot of fun! Got to the parking lot at 7:00am and had the whole place to myself. The first 3.5-ish miles are along the old washed out Carbon River road, so very easy and gentle. The downside, if there is one, is that it’s also a bit mundane. Once you hit the Green Lake trailhead though, the climb gets a bit more strenuous and the scenery much more exciting. After about a mile, there is a quick 200’ off-shoot to a viewpoint for Ranger Falls. The flow was pretty low but still worth seeing. About another mile past Ranger Falls and the trail ends at Green Lake. You can’t miss it, and it’s a beautiful site. Plenty of logs to sit and have lunch or stand to take pics. Gorgeous. Total time from the parking lot to Green Lake was about 2.5 hours for me. I didn’t see any other humans on the trail until I was back down on the old Carbon River Road. Got back to the car right at 11:30. Fitbit says it was just under 12 miles round-trip and elevation gain of 1560’. Definitely recommend to anyone, and I’m hoping to do it again later this year because I suspect it would be even more fun and beautiful with some snow on the ground.