Palisades Lakes Trail and Brown Peak

After such a hot summer, who knew this hike would be so cold?

Very cloudy right from the parking lot at Sunshine Point

Like all the mileage signs in Mount Rainier National Park, this one lies

Plenty of lakes on this trail, this first one is Sunrise Lake

The trail, the clouds, the lake

Cold, but happy

Beautiful Clover Lake

Hiking above Clover Lake

That might be Dege Peak on the horizon

Another view looking toward Sunrise

Wait, is that some blue sky?

A beautiful natural meadow

Tom Lake

Dick's lake

Another cold, but happy, hiker

Heading north

The Palisades for which the trail is named

Upper Palisades Lake

Another shot of the Palisades

Upper Palisade Lake with a very low water level. Wind swirling in the basin made it too cold to linger

Lower Palisades Lake

The end of the maintained trail

Starting up the boot path to Brown peak, looking down at Upper Palisade Lake

Higher

And higher

A selfie at Brown Peak, 6322'

View from the peak, an unnamed lake below

View of Slide Mountain from Brown Peak.  Maybe we'll do that one next time

Coming back down

And coming out

Stats:
Round trip= 9.5 miles
Elevation gain=so much up and down, best estimate 4000' (2100 in, 1900 out)
Hike/driving ratio=6.5hours/4.5hours= 1.4