Naches Peak loop trail is a beautiful trail to enjoy some of the fall colors in the pacific north west Mt Rainier area. This is an easy hike with beautiful views of Mt Rainier and few lakes, dotted with beautiful alpine fall colors along the trail.
Hike Trail Path/Map
Our trail path and various view points
We reached the trail head around 4:30 p.m in the evening. We drove past the regular spot mentioned in hike guide(Tipsoo lake) and parked after the overhead bridge over Highway 410(around .5 miles after the Tipsoo Lake). We parked on the right side on the shoulder lane.
Initially we were a bit confused about the direction of hike, as there were no clear markings but only mention of a Pacific Crest trail sign on the right side of the overhead bridge. We walked till the overhead bridge and started our ascent on the trail facing uphill.
There was lot of cool permafrost on the ground.
First stop, after a short ascent was a small lakelet.
Continuing on, the next view point overlooks the Dewey Lake.
We then reached a trailhead intersection. From the intersection, you can either hike down to Dewey lake OR hike up to remain on the Naches loop trail. We decided to stay on the loop trail. Fall colors had started to pop out with a mix of gold and red colors. After a small uphill hike, we got the first glimpse of Mt Rainier on this trail. We did spend some time here and took some pictures.
From here onwards, Mt Rainier was in front of us, for rest of the trail. The trail downhill had lot of colorful shrubs with golden and red hue. We saw lot of people doing the hike in opposite direction as well, but our recommendation would be to do the hike in the direction we did, especially in the evening.
As we walked downhill, there was a valley on our left hand side and some beautiful meadows. On a clear day, you should be able to see rest of the Cascade mountains.Check out this blog of ours to get some Cascades road trip ideas
We continued down the hill and finally we reached the Tipsoo lake parking lot.
We did not start our trip from the parking lot, so we had to do a small uphill climb around the Tipsoo lake to reach our parking spot.
[Looking back at Tipsoo lake]:
The entire hike took around 3 hours, with enough time for clicking pictures.
We left around 7:45 p.m and then drove back to Seattle, took a pit stop for some beer and food at Naches Tavern, Greenwater.
In short, it was a perfect day hike from Seattle in autumn! Happy trails!
TIP:
- Signs for trailhead starts aren’t clear, so pick where you want to start the hike from.
- You can start from the lake trailhead or drive further up till you reach the bridge over 410 and start from there.
Hiking guides
We always look at the weather and latest trip reports from below sites to plan our hikes. We do read other personal blogs to read about view points, photographic locations on a trail etc.
Travel Tips
- Buy America the Beautiful Annual Pass, if you have plans of visiting multiple national parks.
- Make sure your park pass is displayed clearly.
- Last food stop is at Greenwater while travelling from Seattle(via Enumclaw) to this trailhead
