Bob DenOuden's Pacific Northwesterner: A late summer Mt Rainier backpacking trip

The Carbon River

In all the years I lived in the Puget Sound area, I never made it to the Carbon River entrance to Mt Rainier National Park. Last weekend I remedied this oversight. Ahead of our first Pacific storm of the season, I spent two nights backpacking into the park from the Carbon River trailhead. It is a five mile hike along the closed road to Ipsut Creek Campground, where I spent the nights while exploring on long day hikes. The Carbon River is fascinating as it flows in braided channels through glacial outwash boulders and cobbles. It obviously moves around a lot during winter storms, making it difficult to keep trails, let alone a road, open continuously in the constrained valley floor. Form Ipsut Creek, a multitude of day hikes are possible. I hiked sixteen miles on one day, up to Windy Gap and the Natural Bridge. This entailed a 3,400 foot elevation gain but the rewards were miles of alpine meadow walking and huckleberry snacking. The next day was a shorter hike to the snout of Carbon Glacier, the lowest glacier in the lower 48 states. It is an impressive tongue of ice, covered with rocky debris and emitting a full fledged river from it's ice cave. This is one of the least visited corners of the park and I was rewarded with thin crowds and perfect hiking weather. That was until the storm arrived and I retreated, a night early and completely soaked, to the dry car parked at the trailhead. It was a great weekend of exploring and nice to finally see this spot.