Mileage: varies depending on road closure, usually 10 miles.
Elevation Gain: 3000 ft/high point 5280ft
Map: Green Trails Greenwater No. 238
Favorite Eats Nearby: Farelli’s Wood Fire Grill, Alpine Inn, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty Please.
My Hike:
1/9/2016
This Sun Top Lookout Snowshoe was a trip I took with a Meetup group and we lucked out with beautiful weather and views of Mount Rainier.
We got to the Sno-park at 7:30 but some of our group waited at the road for us thinking we were behind them so we didn’t start up until 8:30am. We opted for micro spikes because the snow was hard, but had snowshoes strapped on our packs. Being the first ones up, it wasn’t long until we were doing a bit of post holing as the snow turned into the softest powder as the previous tracks petered off.
The road was long but provided some nice previews of the surrounding mountains as we went around corners. There were plenty of trees down on the road to maneuver. We eventually put on our snowshoes at about 4000ft. The short little trail up to the summit had some old tracks in the trees but we were blazing the way as Mt Rainier came into view near the top around noon.
And what a view it was! We had the lookout area to ourselves for lunch and some frolicking before heading down to our cars at 1pm and arriving at 3:15pm. Beautiful day in the PNW!
Directions: The sno-park is just a bit off the Highway 410 on Huckleberry Creek Road (FR 73) and most of the “trail” is on FR 7315 (a spur to the left) up to the shorter trailhead for Sun Top Lookout, which is a short 1 mile more past the end of the road. Sno Park Pass needed.
For more snowshoes, click HERE.
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