Soda Springs — Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

My 9 year old daughter and I made a nice day hike out of this. It's not the most exciting trail, but it made for a nice couple of hours of walking through the forest. The trail starts out crossing the bridge over the Bumping River, after which you can go left a very short distance directly to the Soda Springs, or right to make ~2.2 mile loop. We went right which starts by following along the river bank. After about 200m the trail forks away from the river and heads sharply uphill. We initially missed this fork as it was in an area with some downed trees that made it harder to recognize. This was the only difficult portion of the trail to find. Once headed in the right direction the trail ascended steadily for about a mile through the dense forest before arriving at a signpost that marks a split from trail 975 and 975a. Apparently 975 continues on for several more miles, we made the turn onto 975a to loop back to the trail head. Shortly after the signpost there's an obvious turnoff that leads ~25m down short slope to the best view of the hike, overlooking the Bumping River valley. After this point the trail turns down and gets steep and rocky in some sections. As the trail meets the river and bends back towards the bridge the reddish springs are found. The total travel time for the hike was about 2 hours at a leisurely pace. The only note of caution was the bees. They seemed to be buzzing by checking us out everywhere along the trail. No stings, but there was plenty of shooing.