Van Trump Park/Rampart Ridge/Pinnacle Peak

August 26-27, 2006

 

Van Trump/Mildred Point/Rampart Ridge

We returned one more time in late August to the Cougar Rock campground with the plan of doing a long loop hike thanks to the shuttle system that had been setup at Mt. Rainier during the Paradise re-model.  We wanted to hike up to Comet Falls and Van Trump Park/Mildred Point then take the Rampart Ridge trail back to Longmire.  Luckily the shuttle ran from Longmire to the Glacier View Bridge, only a mile from the trailhead so we parked the van at the bridge, walked the road back to the trailhead and started off on the 9 mile day. 

 

The trail began steeply up and over the top of Christine Falls and kept on climbing for several miles until we crossed a small creek and saw some falls, we thought we were there.  After a short rest and some photos we marched on, climbed a bit more, turned the corner and saw the real show of Comet Falls.

Small falls at crossing, we were excited about these	Comet Falls, the real deal

We kept climbing and climbing up to Van Trump Park, our next stop.  Van Trump is at 5800' and has a very nice view of Rainier. 

We knew, however, that we had a higher point yet to reach, Mildred Point.  We left Van Trump and quickly descended which was a bad sign.  We dropped a few hundred feet and then hit Van Trump Creek which we crossed and then started up and up and up.  Finally we broke out to a meadow with a very big "hill" ahead of us, that would lead to Mildred Point at 5900'.

The steep trail ahead	View from Mildred Point

We finally arrived and had lunch at Mildred Point. This point just overlooks a vast chasm and it is one of the strangest views of the mountain I have had.  There is so much exposed rock here it was like looking at a huge canyon with a mountain on top of it. 

After lunching we took off down the Rampart Ridge trail for 2.5 miles to connect to the Wonderland Trail and followed it down and down and down almost 2 miles to Longmire.  The Rampart Ridge portion was great, gentle slopes through the forest the whole way. 

Pinnacle Peak

We were a bit tired the next morning and decided to do something easy so we drove off to Reflection Lakes and hit the Pinnacle Peak trail, a nice 3 mile jaunt to one of the better views of Rainier in the park.  This was just an enjoyable hike that was a nice ending to our trips this season to Mt. Rainier.

Reflection Lake - note the trout rising in the lake	View from Pinnacle Peak