Summerland - Panhandle Gap — Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

We had an amazing day hiking to Pan Handle gap today. With the recent reopening of the White River entrance to Mt Rainier and a stellar weather forecast we decided to make one more Rainier day hike of the summer season. We pulled into the Summerland Th at 8:00 and there were only 3 parking spots left. Cars were parked on the shoulder of the road on both sides of Frying Pan Creek. Many other hikers had the same idea. It was 48 degrees with clear blue skies. The trail in the woods was hard packed, wet soil and above treeline it was not dusty. A couple wildflowers were still in bloom in wet areas - we saw gentian, monkey flower, pearly everlasting and asters. The blueberry and huckleberry plants were brilliant orange / red at Summerland and higher elevation. Seeing Mt Rainier close up and all the distant peaks made a great day. We saw Mt Adam’s to the south and the Stuart Range to the NE. It warmed up nicely and we were down to sun shirts and Tshirts by 11:00. Trail traffic was busier than expected including backpacking groups staying at Indian Bar and Summerland.  Disappointed not to see any marmots or pika but saw a few chipmunks & squirrels. We saw a paraglider soaring on thermals above Goat Island Ridge. Our thoughts were: Where did they launch from and where did they expect to land??  On our descent, within 2 miles of the Th a lone hiker was headed back up the trail with her bear spray at the ready. She mentioned see a bear eating foliage on the trail. She joined our group of 5 for the walk back to out to the trailhead and we did not see the bear. We drove off at 4:30 and the TH was jammed with cars. Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.