Rainier Vacation - Part 4 Shadow lake loop

Day 4
Part 4 of our Rainier camping & hiking vacation.

If you'd like to catch up with our Rainier vacation you can read -

 Part 1 our camp at White River campground HERE 

 Part 2 Owyhigh lakes hike HERE

 Part 3 Shadow lake loop hike HERE. 

Again our spirits were buoyed by a glorious blue sky when we woke and a great view of Rainier from our. White River campground campsite.

We decided to drive up to the Sunrise visitor center parking lot and hike around Shadow lake.Shadow lake. We stopped at a tourist pullout to read about the Columnar Andesite along the road.

We also stopped at Sunrise point to check out the views. It overlooks the Palisades lake trail. This is one we would like to do on another trip. When we looked up at the hill in front of us, we saw lots of white dots so we got out our binoculars and sure enough they were mountain goats.

Sunrise lake

If you zoom in to enlarge the photo below you will see many mountain goats on this hillside.

When we got to the parking lot, we noticed there was a dusting of snow. It was a bit chilly but not too bad. We put extra layers to wear in our day packs and headed to the visitor center.

Flowers in the snow.

Examining the wonderful 3-D map of Rainier and it's trails.

Our hike to Emmons Moraine in my Part 3 post overlooked the lake in this visitor center display. I learned more about "Kettles" here.

Off to the Shadow lake loop.

A couple of deer along the service road.

A light rain began to fall and we heard a thunder roll in the distance.

The light rain turned to sleet and then snow.

Check out the before and after pictures of the parking lot from our day. When we returned to the parking lot it was a different world. We began calling this week the "time that July turned into October". After our hot summer, we really didn't expect this. Soo glad we brought clothing for whatever weather we might have.

Total miles hiked - 2.5 miles

Maximum altitude - 6400 feet