We arrived at Paradise around 9. Both upper and lower parking lots were already full.
We hiked counterclockwise. The supports under the first wooden bridge (after Skyline trail veers to the right) have collapsed. Despite sagging in the middle it seemed stable enough when we crossed over. The hillsides are abloom with paintbrush, pasqueflower, pink mountain heather, lousewort, bistort and lupine. We saw columbine in a couple of spots. There was a bear in a distant meadow, and we watched until it ambled out of sight. Also watched a squirrel enthusiastically munching away on lupine. The areas by the creek are a fairytale green as usual. Saw one clump of penstemon and a few bog gentian and monkeyflower. There is still a smallish snowfield blocking Skyline trail close to where Golden Gate branches off, so hikers were following the winter ski trail.
The slopes of upper Golden Gate trail are blanketed with white wildflowers. More and more color as we descended. Lupine does not seem to be as prolific this year. Fantastic view of the Tatoosh range in the distance from this trail. We watched a marmot and her younglings lounging on a rock while 2 other marmots munched away nearby. A pika scurried across the trail in front of me so quickly I didn’t have a chance to take a photo. We counted a dozen marmots while heading down the trail.
Despite the “partly sunny” forecast the summit was hidden by clouds our entire hike.
Saw a couple of WTA workcrews during our hike. Thank you for your work!
By the time we exited at 2:30pm there was a 1.8 mile long queue of cars waiting to enter the park.
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