This a little write-up from a visit to Pinnacle Saddle in Mount Rainier National Park in August of 2022. For more information about the hike itself, visit Washington Trails Association.
Staying in Ohanapecosh campground, I had just Sunday to drive into the park from Stevens Canyon before road construction closed it again Monday morning, so I arrived early in the day and headed up. What I hadn’t thought about was how rough the road would be! It was that sharp kind of gravel, rutted with lots of dips. Just had to take it slow…
Since I had actually gotten up at 3am to get on the road (don’t ask me why), when I pulled into the parking across from Reflection Lakes around 11am I took a short nap before heading up the trail at noon. Why is this important, you ask? Well, I blame it for my lazy decision to just wear my Tevas up the trail which is important later in my story.
I was surprised by how few people there actually were on the trail considering the amount of cars, most folks must have been over at the lakes. I passed a few climbers heading out and several groups were milling around at the saddle. But the views start well before then, you don’t have to hike up very far before Tahoma is right there front and center.
My first time here, I was a little surprised by the “End of Maintained Trail” at the saddle, don’t a billion people come up here? I was in search of this famous tarn that everyone takes pictures of, mostly by stepping off trail to get that perfect angle with Tahoma’s reflection (we deny those pictures in the FB group I help moderate all the time and I wanted to see it for myself).
I have to admit I hadn’t done a super lot of research before coming, I just had my GAIA app and Nat Geo map so I was counting on that when I plotted a loop around Pinnacle Peak, guessing that tarn was there somewhere.
Nope. But after turning left at the saddle, I did spend about an hour scrambling up Pinnacle Peak before calling it helmet worthy a few hundred feet below the summit and not necessarily the best idea in my Tevas.
So, I dropped back down and made my way over towards Plummer Peak where I found a tarn! And a few residual snowfields and a good place to filter some more water. From a higher viewpoint looking back over at Pinnacle, I was rewarded with views of a group of 6 scrambling back down from the summit on a rappel line. Yep, glad I saved that scramble for a more prepared day.
Overall, I spent about 4.5 hours on the trail and arrived back at the car with dusty, happy feet. And next time, I’ll bring my helmet and better footwear!
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