Some days, Rainier looks like it is floating in the sky.
What a perfect day – a Father’s Day – for an exploratory/conditioning hike. I am calling it that since I was looking for the summit of Greenway Mountain and missed.
I have to settle for 14.4 miles, 3,800 feet elevation gain hike to a peak designated on the map as ‘4302’ and then to Mount Washington.
I was going by an older trip report that said Greenway was ‘about a mile’ past the Y in the Great Wall trail where going right leads to Mount Washington and going left heads into the road that abuts the boundary of the Cedar River Watershed (and its numerous ‘no trespassing’ signs).
At about a mile I found myself near the summit of something kind of big, so I followed the trail around to the north and hit a spot that has to be the perfect place for the 2am planned Perseid-viewing hike… that’s a great find but looking at the track when I got home I see I was short of Greenway. Oh, well, I will get there next time.
After checking out Point 4302 (a perfect 360-view, very nice and wide and flat summit area, like I say, perfect for Perseid viewing in August) I back-tracked and decided to summit Mt. WA since I was in the neighborhood. And that’s when I snapped that gorgeous view of Rainier above.
What a day!
This is a typical view south from the road that leads to Greenway.
My route today was as follows:
- Up Hall Creek Trail to IHT.
- West to Change Creek trail.
- Change Creek trail (see views above and below from this trail) to the Pond trail/Mt. WA junction.
- To Great Wall.
- South to the most southern trail that is not in the watershed.
- East on that road to Point 4302.
- Back along that road to Mt. WA summit.
- Down Mt. WA trail to IHT.
- East to Hall Creek trail and back to the car.
A fun hike!
Back on the IHT trail I went though one of the busiest rock-climbing spots in the area. Just go to YouTube and search for ‘Exit 38’ or ‘Deception Crags’ to see what these intrepid climbers are up to.
Last but not least, the flower situation was acceptable.
If I stopped to snap a photo of every different kind of flower I saw along the way I would be there all day. White, yellow, red, blue, purple – really a beautiful day for a hike.
And it was Father’s Day. I had a smile and a ‘Happy Father’s Day!’ greeting for all the dads I saw hiking with their little ones. Actually, I saw no one at all until Mt. WA, and then on the trail down it was like downtown Seattle.
Happy F-Day to all.
Link to visualization/stats:
http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/change-creek-to-near-greenway-mt-wa-summit/#.V2cNEZXls5s
Wow Joel, nice hike. Coincidentally, Llyn and I wanted to do something quick, so we went up the Change Creek Trail, over IHT, down zig-zag and upstream along Hall Creek, just to see that cataract. We walked by the same climbers and purple flowers you photographed!
-Mark
Yeah, nice hike but I did not get to Greenway – next time. Glad you guys got out, what a beautiful Father’s Day.
After further review I think ‘Point 4302’ is also known as Mid Mother Mountain. If you look at that Power Point you sent me with all the summits in the area, MMM sure looks like the peak just west of Greenway.