High Rock Lookout Trail

Yesterday I went hiking to what turned out to be a really interesting (and surprising) trail: the High Rock Lookout Trail. The trail is located at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, pretty close to the border of the Mt Rainier National Park, and ends at a currently inactive fire lookout. It is not a long trail (3.2 miles to the end and back) but it goes up without any respite from the trailhead up to the lookout. Initially you're surrounded by forest, but after sometime you're high enough that you reach the sub-alpine vegetation, and towards the end there is only naked rock. One aspect of this trail that makes things more "exciting" is that the trail follows a narrow mountain ridge that gets narrower and narrower the further you go, and by the time you reach the lookout you're surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides. In fact, to actually get to the lookout platform, you need to give some steps on the naked rock that are a little bit too close for comfort to the edge of one such cliff. The views are worth it, though: you can see Mt Rainier up close, and also Mt St Helens, Mt Adams and Mt Hood, plus some more lower peaks and lots of forest. I was lucky to be there on a bright sunny day and the view was breathtaking. Furthermore, even though we're past Spring, there were still some beautiful flowers all around, including some that were clinging precariously to the sheer rock. Finally, something I had never seen before: a tomb? Apparently someone was buried next to the trail (or at least the ashes, it doesn't look big enough for a coffin...). Nevertheless, it was a fantastic trail, and I recommend it to everyone.

(in the above picture you can see a woodpecker - I had to digitally zoom to make it more visible)

(Mt Rainier)

(Mt St Helens)

(Mt Adams)