August 28th, the second hike of this our 50th Anniversary day was Pinnacle Saddle. As stated in my previous posts we had hiked this the day after our marriage fifty years ago. We thought this would be a great way to celebrate our fifty years together.
We drove back to Reflection lake from our Snow/Bench lakes hike.
We found someone to take our photo for our Anniversary memories.
The trailhead is across the street from Reflection lake. The trail goes to Pinnacle Peak, we stopped at the Saddle.
The trail began climbing in elevation fairly quickly. The start of the trail was a nice dirt/fir needle surface, but the second half was mostly rock.
Our first view of Rainier from the trail.
Looking up at the rocky hill we hiked around.
There weren't too many wildflowers on this trail but we did see some Pasque flowers.
Ever upward through the switch back section
We found someone to take our picture on the trail, again for our memories.
I appreciated the work a trail crew had done in this section. The rockwork on this retaining wall really helped with getting through this section.
At the Saddle!!
The view from the Saddle looking to the south was a hazy view of Mount Adams.
The view to the northeast was Mount Rainier.
Views from where we sat and ate our lunch. We saw a Marmot while we were at the Saddle but our pictures didn't turn out very clear.
Looking at Plummer Peak.
Looking at Pinnacle Peak.
What a great day retracing our steps of 50 years ago❤.
Our view of Rainier with Paradise visible as we made our way back down the trail.
After our hike we went to the Longmire Inn and had a nice Anniversary dinner❤
Garmin stats:
total miles - 2.7
total ascent - 994 feet
To be continued.....
