Month: July 2024

Exploring Emmons Moraine Trail on Mount Rainier: A Delightful Wilderness Hike

Continuing our Thursday on The Mountain Schedule, Leslie, Paul and I explored a new area of Mount Rainier, the Emmons Moraine Trail.  Personally, I was a little skeptical about the hike because I didn’t think it was high enough to get the kind of views that we usually get.  Turns out, perhaps for the first time in my life, that I was wrong.  

Most of the hike took place in old-growth forest while following the White River up to its source, so it was relatively cool, a good thing because the combination of heat and altitude gain have been challenging for me lately, particularly heat. 

Luckily, the trail was criss-crossed by multiple creeks which added to the beauty of the hike while reinforcing the air-conditioning. 

There were parts of the trail that weren’t forested that seemed considerably warmer, but we hardly noticed the change in heat because of the beautiful views 

and, especially, the flowers that carpeted the small meadows like this Lewis Monkeyflower 

or, a personal favorite, Indian Paintbrush.

Sometimes if you looked up in a clearing you could see the cliffs that the Wonderland Trail follow. 

After two miles we finally arrived where you crossed the White River.  It turned out to be too narrow for Leslie, and I will have to admit that I was a little apprehensive in two or three spots on the climb up to the trees.   

We decided to go to the base camp instead, which would have made it a 6 mile round trip. Less than a mile up the trail, though, I decided that was enough for me.  My hip was beginning to tighten up, and I was showing the effects of this week’s heat and a lack of sleep and decided that discretion was better than exhaustion.  We ended up only going 4.2 miles with 935 feet of elevation gain.  

Despite not making it as far as I would have liked, it was a delightful hike. The trail is well-maintained, probably because it starts on the edge of the only campground on the North side of the mountain. Though we met people both going up and coming down the trail, it never seemed crowded, and it definitely felt like you were in the wilderness while hiking.

You Never Know What You’ll See at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge


Whenever Leslie and I visit a wildlife refuge both of us shoot photos out of both sides of the vehicle.  Most of the time we see roughly the same birds, but that definitely wasn’t true while visiting Bear River.  In fact Leslie was seeing birds on her side that I didn’t see either day, like this Night Heron,


this large flock of swallows,


this Snowy Egret,


and, more importantly, Grebes


with  babies.

Leslie was seeing so many more birds than I was seeing that she even volunteered to change sides with me.  I declined, but ended up trying to shoot photos out her window, but not always with the best of results.   

As frustrating as it can be when you don’t see birds that others have just seen on a refuge, it’s definitely part of the experience. Every visit to a magical place like Bear River, is a new experience.

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge: A Photographic Journey


After several days, I finally narrowed the thousands of pictures Leslie and I took at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge over two days to just 520 photos.  Of course the hardest part is still ahead because I’m not about to post that many photos on my site.  Even more of a problem for me is how I want to organize them.  Sometimes I post Leslie’s photos first and mine later, but we actually shot a lot of the same shots. I also seriously thought about sorting them by species, but there are a lot more shots of Grebes than anything else, and I didn’t want to slight striking birds like this Yellow-headed Blackbird,


these White Pelicans, 


this baby American Coot,


this mother Coot, 


this male Ruddy Duck, 


or this Western Grebe.


Remarkably, all of these shots were taken by me in the first third of the Auto Route while Leslie was even busier taking photos of different birds from her side of the car.

Although the highlight of this visit had to be Grebes and their babies, much of the appeal of this place is the amazing variety of birds found here throughout the year.