Sunday was the perfect fall day to visit the Mirror Lakes at Mt Rainier. We were pleasantly surprised to see large earth movers restoring the Westside road from its washed out state. The road has a new bridge and is being smoothed and graded, and wide spaces are being created for parking. It will be great not to have to do that 1.3 miles up the road to get to the Tahoma Creek Trail.
The creek trail is not marked on the official Rainier map, but its on my Green Trails as an unmaintained trail. For the most part, its a pleasant pretty trail. There is an improvised section at the bottom that heads out into the river bed; this is different every year depending on what the creek does over the winter. There are also 3 places where the trail is gone and the work-arounds are pretty gnarly. They have recently cut large fallen trees across the trail so they are doing some maintenance.
Then meet up with the Wonderland Trail, cross a spectacular bridge and climb to the lakes area. We went about 12.2 miles and climbed 2972 feet.
Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
- Attachments
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- Crossing Tahoma Creek, one at a time. A little scary and not for any one with a fear of heights.
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- Lunchtime view.
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- Rainier & Pyramid
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- Pyramid Peak. There's a trail to the top for another day.
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- The first Mirror Lake
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- The trail between the bridge and Mirror Lakes. The lower part is nice and shady.
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- Heading down the Tahoma Creek trail.
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- Back to the foot of Mt Wow as the day fades.
Re: Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
Oh, mirror lakes, of course...I was thinking of reflection lakes, and wondered why you'd approach from westside.
I'm shocked they're trying to restore part of the westside road again. It been washed out so many times. I wonder if there might be better ways to spend their limited funds. That's not intended as a complaint or criticism; I've been away from Rainier too long to really know what's best up there. How far are they rebuilding it? Round Pass, I suspect. I might want to get up there before the next flood wipes it out. There are a few spots on the west side I still haven't been to.
Funny story: I was walking up that road one morning in the dark and hit a spot where a creek was running over the road. Almost didn't notice the road was undercut and collapsed in a spot, and nearly walked into the void.
Everybody knows it's crazy stupid to drive on a road if you see a displaced creek running across it, but I guess the same applies to hiking.
BTW, it's not the walk up to the trail that's the hard part, it's the extra mileage coming back down
Did you have any trouble finding the trail where it meets the road? I remember it was extremely easy to find if you had pointers on where to look, but could be a little tricky for first timers who assumed it was an obvious junction.
Pyramid Peak is highly recommended. Hope you manage to get up there someday. Iron and Copper are kinda interesting. Worthwhile, but just. Another good side trip is up Success Cleaver a ways, until time or energy run out. I think it's considered the easiest no-glacier ascent route up to the summit, but the one time I tried it I was too late (westside road to summit in a day would be quite an epic slog, and it was too snowy to feel comfortable navigating at night through the forest).
I'm shocked they're trying to restore part of the westside road again. It been washed out so many times. I wonder if there might be better ways to spend their limited funds. That's not intended as a complaint or criticism; I've been away from Rainier too long to really know what's best up there. How far are they rebuilding it? Round Pass, I suspect. I might want to get up there before the next flood wipes it out. There are a few spots on the west side I still haven't been to.
Funny story: I was walking up that road one morning in the dark and hit a spot where a creek was running over the road. Almost didn't notice the road was undercut and collapsed in a spot, and nearly walked into the void.
Everybody knows it's crazy stupid to drive on a road if you see a displaced creek running across it, but I guess the same applies to hiking. BTW, it's not the walk up to the trail that's the hard part, it's the extra mileage coming back down
Did you have any trouble finding the trail where it meets the road? I remember it was extremely easy to find if you had pointers on where to look, but could be a little tricky for first timers who assumed it was an obvious junction.
Pyramid Peak is highly recommended. Hope you manage to get up there someday. Iron and Copper are kinda interesting. Worthwhile, but just. Another good side trip is up Success Cleaver a ways, until time or energy run out. I think it's considered the easiest no-glacier ascent route up to the summit, but the one time I tried it I was too late (westside road to summit in a day would be quite an epic slog, and it was too snowy to feel comfortable navigating at night through the forest).
Re: Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
Wow, this is amazing! So are they really fixing the Westside Road? I looked on the nps website and couldn't find any info on it, but if they actually are, then that is frickin amazing.
I've always wanted to hike on that side of the mountain, but was dissuaded by doing the boring road walks (I hate roadwalks
). I hope they can manage to build the road up higher than before, so it is less likely to be destroyed by the creek, as well as install flood control devices along the creek like they did on the Carbon River. Inevitably, it will be destroyed again, but at least there's an open window to explore that area of the park for a little while. 
I'd even be cool with them diverting some trail maintenance funds to fixing that road, as practically all the trails on Mount Rainier are in such excellent condition already. I'm used to hiking on rough, undermaintained trails anyway, so that wouldn't bother me.
Good one on the park for not giving up on the Westside Road quite yet.
I've always wanted to hike on that side of the mountain, but was dissuaded by doing the boring road walks (I hate roadwalks
). I hope they can manage to build the road up higher than before, so it is less likely to be destroyed by the creek, as well as install flood control devices along the creek like they did on the Carbon River. Inevitably, it will be destroyed again, but at least there's an open window to explore that area of the park for a little while. I'd even be cool with them diverting some trail maintenance funds to fixing that road, as practically all the trails on Mount Rainier are in such excellent condition already. I'm used to hiking on rough, undermaintained trails anyway, so that wouldn't bother me.
Good one on the park for not giving up on the Westside Road quite yet.
- Previously ElementalFX
Re: Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
The trail was not too hard to find if you knew that it was 1.2-1.3 miles from the gate. There's no signage at the entrance but there's a brand new metal sign a few feet into the woods announcing its unmaintained status and another to mark the miles to the Wonderland. I was last there in 2012 and things were a mess. I wish I had taken pictures of the road work - it was pretty extensive. Our tax dollars at work!
Re: Mirror Lakes, Mt Rainier
Wow, I am shocked as well regarding Westside road. This is great news.
Wonder if they are thinking of restoring the trail to fully open status as well. That's a great approach.
Wonder if they are thinking of restoring the trail to fully open status as well. That's a great approach.