Summit Lake Hike

2 October 2014

Summit Lake and Mt Rainier with Bearhead Mtn

C.J. and I saw this hike several months ago but we just now got around to committing to getting up early and doing the drive down to the north border of Mt. Rainier National Park for a day hike.

The Washington Trails Association's web page has a blog for each hike. The most recent posts on the Summit Lake page were more about how bad the road was than about the trail. We took the usual route down to Enumclaw then continued south to Buckley and Wilkeson and Carbonado. The paved Carbon River Road took us all the way to a turn-off on FS7810 just before entering the park. I was surprised to spot a ranger station a mile before the boundary; I'd been expecting one at the entrance station. We stopped anyway to see if there were any maps or notices. The ranger on duty was busy on the phone so we used the facilities and went on our way. FS7810 crossed the Carbon River on a long one-lane bridge and then the pavement ended. The first bit was pretty pot-holed; after that it was rough but nothing like the road up Rampart where you would need a 4WD. It was about six miles to the trailhead and we were the only ones there when we arrived shortly after 0900. The trail switchbacked up through pretty dense forest passing the oddly-named Twin Lake which was covered with a growth of long filaments of water grass. There were lots of mushrooms, and we saw several large cones (spruce?) which appeared to have been knocked down by the squirrels. We could hear people behind us but were surprised when they did not pass us considering our usual slow pace. A short distance after the lake we entered the Clearwater Wilderness. We only had to climb 1200 ft to reach Summit Lake, about 2.5 mi. But we stopped barely long enough to admire the view before heading up the herd path ("boot track") to the summit

C.J. on the summit

behind Summit Lake. Two hikers with a dog passed us as we stopped at an overlook to admire the view with the lake in the foreground and cloud-capped Mt. Rainier behind. A short distance farther we found a good place for a scenic lunch spot and took a break. From there it wasn't very far to the rocky summit where we had a 360-degree view. We could pick out Stuart and the Alpine Lakes high peaks and probably Glacier, but Mt. Baker was in the clouds and the Olympics were also clouded out. Looking almost straight down we could see the parking lot and the Sorento. According to the GPS, it was only 500 ft from lake to summit, and maybe 0.5 mi. of trail. Heading down we passed a single hiker heading up, and four folks at the lake. The trip down the trail went well and we were soon back at the car. Driving the rough road took only 20-30 min so there was plenty of time to drive through Carbonado and Buckley before heading for Enumclaw. We found a place to park not far from a sweet shop which had Snoqualmie ice cream and C.J. got some pumpkin pie ice cream while I went for the coffee almond fudge (??). We sat outside in the sunshine until the sun sank behind some buildings and it began to get chilly. A pleasant end to an excellent day.

Lenticular cloud cap on Mt. Rainier