I hiked with a group of Mountaineers on a Saturday morning. I was surprised to see a lot of cars at the TH but most of them seemed to belong to campers at the camp near the TH. The trail winds around a portion of Mowich lake and then heads into the woods on the way to Eunice Lake. The trail skirts some great walk walls to along the right side of the path going up. As you can see by the pictures we were in fog the whole trip but it made for an interesting atmosphere. The scene was something like jungle mountain trekking. The trail from Lake Eunice to the lookout is a 0.9 miles of up. We never did view Mt Rainier from the lookout but there was a brief view of some peaks close by to the NE. There were wild flowers at Eunice Lake. The trail was in good shape except for a large tree across the path that caused some trouble to cross over. Many thanks to Ken our hike leader for the organizing and leadership. John

We arrived at the trailhead a later than we should have, around 10:30. We were a little confused by the signs on the way up the road. If you do not have exact change, you can go left after the single lane bridge and go to the Ranger station, you can also obtain a map of all the trails in the area while there. If you go right you continue 11 miles up the gravel road until you get to a pay station, it costs $15 per vehicle. No matter what you have to take the right gravel road to get to the trail. This is an excellent trail to take on a cool day with a breeze. Today was very hot, no breeze. The trail was extremely buggy. There was no relief from the bugs, I have never seen such a concentration of mosquitoes and biting flies in such a broad area. If you stopped to relax the bugs would swarm around you and start biting. For each picture we took we got bitten at least twice and were swarmed. At the top of Tolmie Peak, which also had tons of bugs, the views were spectacular!!! It took us alot of work to get to the top on this very hot day and we were very proud of ourselves! Our pictures are great! We were hoping to have some lunch at the top but we couldn't really stop anywhere to eat without getting eaten ourselves. So we just headed back down. Maybe if there was a breeze not so many bugs would have been out... so thats my suggestion.

Mowich Lake road is open and in better shaope than I remembered it-- a new layer of fresh dirt over the corduroy? The trail along Moich Lake is covered in vast patches of slushy snow, maiking it almost worth walking the first half mile by road. Beautiful condition to Ipsut Pass, and clear through till Eunice Lake, wherre it's back to slushy snow mounds, till the switchbacks up to the lookout, which is all smooth sailing. Did you know there's a solar toilet by the lookout? Talk about your luxury destinations. Oh yeah, the mountain views are absolutely beautiful, not to mention avalanche lilies, glacier lilies, penstemon, phlox, valerian, lupine...

This trailhead is not accessible. The road is closed at mile 11 (of 17), and the sign stating so looks fairly permanent.

This is a wonderful trail, not too difficult and has amazing views. However, unfortunately for us, we went on a day which was forecasted to be clear, but to our dismay, turned out to be mostly cloudy. We couldn't see Mt. Rainier or any other big mountain from the lookout. Even with that, I can say that the views of the mountain-range all around and the valleys were simply great. We saw lots of wild flowers along the trail. From the Tolmie peak lookout you can continue a little further on the ridge line and that is highly recommended! Things to keep in mind: 1) There were lots of bugs/mosquitoes near the Eunice lake and also the Tolmie peak lookout. Bug repellent recommended. 2) There is a 17 mile unpaved road to the trailhead - it's not too bad, any regular car should be able to make it.