Emmons Glacier
Jul. 26th, 2022 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
After a protractedly cold and wet spring, with March extending into June, summer finally arrived in the Pacific northwest around mid July. Yay!
Yesterday I went down to Mount Tahoma (Rainier) National Park and hiked the Emmons Moraine trail. I decided against going up to Sunrise having read the trip reports from the day before of how bad the mosquitoes were, so I stayed down at lower elevation. I'd originally planned to hike up to Glacier Basin after visting the glacier briefly , but construction work on Hwy 410 delayed me considerably, so I shortened the hike because it was getting very hot...
First look at Tahoma (Mount Rainier) driving into the park by the White River.
The first mile of the trail is through forest, with little creeks cascading down the hillside to meet the White River.
A species of the Ericaceae family, non-photosynthetic plants which associate with a fungus around their roots to gain nutrients. So you get a flower stalk that just sticks up out of the leaf litter, with no leaves.
Where the Emmons trail crosses the inner fork of the White River, and moves into exposed country.
As the trail rises up onto the glacial moraine, the first sight is the glacial meltwater lake. The crazy green colour comes from all the super-fine sediment suspended in the water.
Climbing higher along the moraine, the Emmons glacier comes into view. Sadly it's not beautiful and shiny white because a landlside dumped rock all over it thirty years ago. So now it just looks like more rock, but for the meltwater running out from its end. Despite its undistinguished appearance, it's the largest glacier in the US outside Alaska.
Looking back along the glacier valley to the lake.
It wasn't the longest hike, only about 5 miles and 1000 feet of climb, but I learned I'm just as unfit as I thought I would be after staying at home out of the rain all spring. I also learned to avoid Highway 410 for a while - I think my next trip to Mount Tahoma will be from the other side...
And as a bonus, have a photo of one of the coyotes at the bottom of our garden a couple of weeks ago :-)
Yesterday I went down to Mount Tahoma (Rainier) National Park and hiked the Emmons Moraine trail. I decided against going up to Sunrise having read the trip reports from the day before of how bad the mosquitoes were, so I stayed down at lower elevation. I'd originally planned to hike up to Glacier Basin after visting the glacier briefly , but construction work on Hwy 410 delayed me considerably, so I shortened the hike because it was getting very hot...
First look at Tahoma (Mount Rainier) driving into the park by the White River.
The first mile of the trail is through forest, with little creeks cascading down the hillside to meet the White River.
A species of the Ericaceae family, non-photosynthetic plants which associate with a fungus around their roots to gain nutrients. So you get a flower stalk that just sticks up out of the leaf litter, with no leaves.
Where the Emmons trail crosses the inner fork of the White River, and moves into exposed country.
As the trail rises up onto the glacial moraine, the first sight is the glacial meltwater lake. The crazy green colour comes from all the super-fine sediment suspended in the water.
Climbing higher along the moraine, the Emmons glacier comes into view. Sadly it's not beautiful and shiny white because a landlside dumped rock all over it thirty years ago. So now it just looks like more rock, but for the meltwater running out from its end. Despite its undistinguished appearance, it's the largest glacier in the US outside Alaska.
Looking back along the glacier valley to the lake.
It wasn't the longest hike, only about 5 miles and 1000 feet of climb, but I learned I'm just as unfit as I thought I would be after staying at home out of the rain all spring. I also learned to avoid Highway 410 for a while - I think my next trip to Mount Tahoma will be from the other side...
And as a bonus, have a photo of one of the coyotes at the bottom of our garden a couple of weeks ago :-)
