Mt. Rainier: The Colonnade

Pristine weather was with us on Wednesday and Thursday (October 18-19, 2023) so I planned on another bike/hike foray into the park, visiting one of my favorite places: The Colonnade. At this point all the campgrounds were closed in the park so I secured a cross country permit at Longmire and left my van there, biking to the end of the West Side Road at Klapatche Point.

Golden hour on the Colonnade

Catching the glow

After securing the bike, it was back to earthly bipedal action and hiking the North Puyallup Trail (which used to be the road until 1987) to the intersection with the Wonderland, then departing in the vicinity of Sunset Park/Silver Forest and making my way to the Colonnade. There is a trail which I lost a few times in the lower sections, but once on the ridge proper it is patently obvious. In 2016 I did this trip and bivied at the old lookout site at 6,700’. This time I spotted a knoll with an unobstructed view of the mountain and its flanks and determined that would be an excellent spot for sunset. Despite blustery winds most of the afternoon and night, the temperatures were moderate and I enjoyed a mesmerizing star show above while a GoPro captured sunset and star trails.

Alpenglow on Rainier, October 18, 2023

I snoozed the next morning until the sun hit my bivy, as this was a relaxed trip and more in line for soaking in the environment than pumping out an endurance event. Once again my shadow was before me as I reversed the jaunt to my bike and pedaled back to Longmire, easier with less elevation gain than the day before. Round trip stats: 53 miles/7,100’ elev. This was an immersive trip, in complete solitude. It’s hard to explain what this infusion of sights and smells and toil does for one’s soul; maybe the video and pics will help impart some of this to you, dear reader, which is the purpose of this site.

Mt. Rainier Grand Tour: Observation Rock, Ptarmigan Ridge

This was the last spot for me to hike on the Mt. Rainier Grand Tour, a self concocted trip forging up ridges and cleavers to afford astounding in-your-face views of Mt. Rainier's exquisite glacial topography. If done all at once as an orbit, the Tour entails 150 miles of hiking and 50,000 feet of vertical. However, you will do a bit more than that if taken in sections as I have done. This day trip turned out to be 15.5 miles with 4700 feet of elevation gain/loss. With tricky weather of late, I tried to take advantage of favorable conditions on Saturday September 24, hitting the trail at 7:45 AM after enduring the washboard road from hell to Mowich Lake. The weather held well enough but trended towards clouding up as the afternoon waned. However, I was able to summit Observation Rock (8376') with still open views; only the upper mountain was clouded over. After Observation I made my way up Ptarmigan Ridge to an obvious prominence and was rewarded with stunning vistas all around on the tiny summit, which my GPS put at 8670 feet. Like so many of the other points on the Tour, getting to these elevations allow one to gaze down upon the glaciers for intimate viewings of the world of rock and ice. Then just turn around and survey away from the mountain, picking out points passed on the Wonderland or climbed on the Tour. My objective in concocting the Grand Tour was to experience Mt. Rainier National Park both high and low, without the need for technical gear. I have hit every point on the Tour wearing trail runners (no microspikes or ice axe) and only aided by trekking poles or my ZPacks staff. Granted, on today's hike the Flett Glacier was a bit consolidated in the morning, so I crossed it twice on low angled spots, starting out climbing the ridge on the left, then right, and finally crossing over to Echo Rock and beyond. From that point I stayed on the rocks, scree, and pumiced marbles; just using the Flett Glacier would have been much easier, but I had already witnessed a booting skier slide into some rocks when he lost his footing, requiring some minor bandaging. My somewhat convoluted ascent and descent kept me off any hazardous angles. Complete photo set here.

Observation Rock (8376')

When I arrived at a saddle giving access to climbing Observation rock, a cold 20 knot wind necessitated donning 3 layers, a beanie and mittens. My clothing combo was perfect in that I was not cold and never came close to over heating while climbing. After Observation Rock I found Ptarmigan Ridge to be mild and low angled, making for a very pleasant ascent to the prominence. However, the tiny summit had me sitting down for most of my photography because of the airiness. I had left the option of climbing Echo Rock last but the clouds were moving in on the descent and I elected to save that summit for another day. Fog accompanied me from the bottom of the Flett until I reached lower Spray Park, and in the process I happened upon 3 mountain goats. We all exchanged looks and went about our business, and 11 hours after I set out I was back at my vehicle, ecstatic that I was able to finish the Tour before schedules and weather shut the door.

frozen tarn in Spray Park, looking at Echo and Observation Rocks

Mt. Rainier Grand Tour: The Colonnade

Pugetopolis behind me

A few years ago I crafted a trip around Mt. Rainier which would provide (in my opinion) the most intimate connection with the park, using the encircling Wonderland trail as the main avenue but departing in appropriate places to forge over largely unvisited areas like the Elysian Fields and probing up the myriad cleavers and ridge lines for in-your-face views. One such prominence, The Colonnade, is a place where an overnight bivy was in order to soak in the west facing flank of the mountain in sunset alpenglow. This ridge is accessed about 1.5 miles out of Golden Lakes heading CCW. As is typical for such "off trail" travel, there is an unmaintained trail that pops in and out of view on the way up the ridge, sometimes faint and sometimes obvious. My destination was a flat area on a high point affording a commanding view of the mountain and 360 degree views with the Puget Sound metropolitan city lights aglow behind me. Remnants of some structure were evident there, with rusted cables and old bolts, and further research uncovered the fact that an old fire lookout occupied the site, built in 1930 but quickly abandoned and dismantled for another spot. A discrepancy exists in that the lookout was listed as occupying a spot at 7,176 feet, yet my map and GPS indicated I was at 6,700 foot elevation. Continuing beyond my bivy spot would require much more scrambling and rugged terrain, but I did scurry out on an adjoining fin of rock, at one point just a few feet wide, to experience a more lofty environment. Oddly enough there was a bench mark on this fin from the National Center for Earthquake Research. See complete photo set here.

The Colonnade, Mt. Rainier National Park

Overview of the Grand Tour, Mt. Rainier

With perfect weather I was able to bike the West Side Road to its end (9 miles), then hike the remaining 9 miles or so to my spot on the ridge, arriving at 6 PM with plenty of time to set up my bivy and prepare for the coming pinkathon on the rock and ice before me. I set up my GoPro to time lapse the sunset, snapping photos with abandon and climbing out on the fin. When the color faded from the mountain, I crawled into my bivy to await darkness for some night photography. However, the rising, nearly full moon tracked most of the night from behind the mountain over my right shoulder, finally setting behind me around 5 AM. Bright enough to cast deep shadows and see details, I sometimes had to turn to my left side because it was like trying to sleep with a flashlight shining directly on my face. Such problems are good ones, though, and despite abundant light from the moon and predawn glow, the night was starry nonetheless. The temperature was crisp enough for me to don my shells inside the bivy with my 30 degree quilt, and I stayed cocooned until the morning sun was assaulting me, once clearing the rock obstacle before me.

Most of the high spots on the Tour are designed to be visited by day, retreating to lower elevations for slumber, but this perch on The Colonnade demands an overnight. Another such spot comes to mind, that being Curtis Ridge. I have but one more high point to hit to complete the Tour, and if weather cooperates that may come next week. But if not, The Colonnade will be fresh in my memory as one of the most spectacular spots to spend a night on the mountain.

The View, from the Colonnade

Mt. Rainier Success Divide

It seems with current weather trends that I am not going to be able to complete the last part (West) of the Mt. Rainier Grand Tour in one shot, as forging high on the divides and cleavers really should be done in good weather to take advantage of expansive views. A short decent weather window allowed me to at least get up the Success Divide to 7800 feet on Wednesday, September 23, and allowed for expansive views south and west, but a lingering cloud layer over the mountain proper down to about 8000 feet blocked any views upward. Nevertheless, this was a highly rewarding and somewhat tough day. The straight forward part is following the Wonderland Trail from Longmire to Indian Henry's Hunting Ground, and there is a well established trail leading to Pyramid Peak from the Mirror Lakes Trail. After this, travel becomes somewhat more complicated as one skirts the base of Pyramid Peak to acquire the Success Divide. This is one instance where I actually was glad to have a GPS to check my return track a few times in this section. See the complete photo set for this Success Divide hike here.

fall colors near Pyramid Peak

The Success Divide is the lower part of a ridge that leads to the Success Cleaver. This is the only climbing route on Rainier that doesn't step foot on a glacier, but it is long and tough. As part of the Grand Tour I wanted to climb high enough to get close up views of the South Tahoma Glacier, Glacier Island, and numerous peaks to the west and south. Travel on the Divide was fairly tough, with loose rock and scree combined with route finding to choose the best line whilst skirting steeper areas. When I think of all the different areas and off trail portions of the Grand Tour, this was perhaps the toughest after the Elysian Fields/Moraine Park transit. However, it fits well in the crafting of my self concocted Grand Tour, taking the intrepid hiker well beyond the manicured trails in the park to areas visited by (statistically of all hikers) the few. And keeping in line with my criteria of non technical travel and/or specialized equipment, climbing the Divide was done with my usual light trail runners, in this case Inov8 Trailrock 235s.

tarn below Pyramid Peak

By dividing the West portion of the Grand Tour I am actually putting in many more miles than the original plan of 150, but so it goes. This day didn't disappoint on this first day of fall, with some patches of vibrant fall colors, cool temps, and solitude once I left the Wonderland. On my way back there was a one camper at Devils Dream camp, and I enjoyed perhaps 30 minutes of comraderie and libations while the chap from Wisconsin was making dinner, a pleasant respite indeed. After that it was a matter of retracing my steps in the dark back to my vehicle in a mostly downhill trot, enjoying the moon peeking through the trees in the process. Despite the weather not cooperating in its usual September style, snatching days like this when the opportunity arrives is still a treat for the soul.