Norse Peak was a great place to spend the 4th of July holiday! We arrived at the trailhead around 8:30 am, there was plenty of parking available. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and 60s or so with a breeze that kept us cool after breaking out of the forest into the burn area at around 1.5 – 2.0 miles. The rest of the hike is exposed with great views of Rainier and Adams as you continue to climb. There was some sparse lupine and paintbrush at lower elevations and some other purple flowers higher up (sorry, my flower knowledge is limited), but I was quite surprised to compare with my photos from July 4th, 2020 that showed an impressive abundance of wildflowers. Not sure why it was so different this year.
I’ve had some knee issues since I did this hike in 2020, and the first couple of miles felt steeper than I recalled. I was also feeling the elevation once we got around 6000 ft, as was one of my two friends. Knee held up OK, but we decided to turn back at about 4.3 miles where the trail takes a steep turn to the left downhill with loose dirt and gravel before continuing to climb. I also recalled an upcoming sketchy section of trail a bit further on, which was confirmed to us by a couple of hikers heading down. We were quite happy with the spectacular views where we were, and enjoyed our lunch near the meadows before heading down. This trail never seems to be crowded – we saw a few other parties coming up, and a handful more on our way down, but mostly enjoyed the solitude and gorgeous early summer day in the mountains. Stats were 8.75 miles, 2,700' .
Length
Elevation Gain
Comments