Trip Report
Day Hike - Eastside Trail (Mount Rainier)
Solitude and an amazing amount of water flowing through all the falls at this time of year.
Lara Linde
- Mon, Jul 5, 2021
- Day Hike - Eastside Trail (Mount Rainier)
- Eastside Trail (Mount Rainier)
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The route was straight forward with good signage. The section between between Deer Creek Falls and Stafford Falls had a small area that had experienced a few blowdowns and one area in the same stretch where water was flowing down the trail. A re-route through some larger well-positioned rocks was required. Everyone in our party was able to easily clear the blowdowns and the water crossing. Flooded trail conditions can be seen in the photo below.
Some of the bridges are in rough shape like this one with partial hand railings missing.
Other than the very few obstacles, the trail was well maintained with good tread for easy hiking and is snow free.
We did this trip as a downhill thru hike, staging one car at the Owyhigh Lakes TH off of Hwy 123 and a second car at Ohanapecosh. The hike was very pleasant and remarkably shady which helped combat the warm day. The solitude on the trip was excellent between our starting point and the intersection with the Grove of the Patriarchs. Not too many flowers (only saw one columbine blooming) but the focus of our trip was waterfalls and we saw A LOT of them!
Deer Creek Falls gets the party started right off the bat in less than half a mile from the trailhead.
This bonus falls between Deer Creek and Stafford Falls was not on our list to visit but we stopped for photos anyways.
Stafford Falls is accessed by a short unmarked way trail.
At first we weren't too impressed by Ohanapecosh Falls because one look up stream and there were just a few little rapids.
We changed our minds after continuing down stream on the trail to a viewpoint where you could see the falls and the bridge. Much more impressive with two plunge pools!
One of several cascades on Olallie Creek Falls.
Since it was close to lunchtime and we were close to the Grove of the Patriarchs, we decided to continue on to the trail intersection and have lunch at the river. The throngs of tourists were out from this point on. After lunch we walked the boardwalk with the big trees and re-crossed the bridge.
There were so many cascades that make up Silver Falls that we spent some time exploring the various upstream trails for the best views. We found one view with a rainbow!
The best view of Silver Falls was crowded with tourists so we did a hike-by and didn't spend much time there.
Our final stop of the day was to the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs. It is not nearly as developed as Longmire Hot Springs but it is much warmer, about the temperature of bathtub water.
All in all, a great trip with more solitude than expected, an astounding number of waterfalls, and well worth the mileage.