Crow Lake Way Trail #953 to Grassy Saddle - Hiking #hiking #wildfire #norsepeakwilderness

I will fully admit I didn't have super high hopes for this hike before setting out. It read as a steep climb, through lots of burnt forest, with maybe some decent views of surrounding mountains and a peak at Rainier - if the clouds broke over the volcano. What set the deal for us was the weather forecast being sunny and cool, and the trail getting up high into the subalpine without it being a death march.

I will also fully admit I was completely wrong about this trail. Yes it was steep, yes the clouds prevented us from seeing much of the Cascade Crest - including Rainier. BUT, the trail itself was amazing. The climb - while steep - was not exhausting, and it got us up to the ridgeline fairly quickly, it felt like. The forest was burnt along a lot of the trail - nuked out completely after the 2nd viewpoint to Grassy Saddle. But, it has been 7 years since the fire, and the climb up to the ridge wasn't burnt so badly that life was having a hard time re-growing. In fact, the forest floor was full of things reaching up to the sky and outwards to capture light. There was wildflowers, rose & berry bushes, larger shrubs, and even conifer tress making their way through the maelstrom of everything else skyward. The juxtaposition of the dead standing silver snags and the vigorous green life below them made for quite the entertainment for the eyes while were sucking in oxygen on our way up.

Now a for how far we hiked. We didn't quite make it to Grassy Saddle. But that is because we got to a point to where our views for lunch would be drastically reduced the closer we got to the saddle. So we stopped on a grassy knoll surrounded by the nuked out trees and had lunch. My advise - if you're only going for views and the climb, stop at the 2nd set of viewpoints at around 2.8 miles. If you want to continue further and walk through the severe burn area, go ahead. But the views don't get better fro when you stop.

Overall, I'd say we fully  enjoyed the hike. I do recommend it - if you can make the climb. Save it for a day like the day we did it; a cool, sunny day in late spring or early summer when the flowers are out and the sun won't roast you through the silver snags of burnt trees.

RATINGS
Accessibility          4 Stars
Difficulty              3.5 Stars
Enjoyment          3.5 Stars

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:07 Finding the Trail
7:25 On the Trail
7:45 Climbing Through Burnt Forest
17:33 First Viewpoint
20:24 Climbing Through Burnt Forest
21:51 Ridgeline Views
24:52 Nuked Out Ridge
33:31 Grassy Saddle
35:22 Nuked Out Ridge
37:43 Best Viewpoint
41:46 Outro
46:22 BONUS: Fifes Peak Descent

#pnw #summer #hiking #forest #wildfire #mountains #subalpine #wildflowers #newgrowth #geology #norsepeakwilderness #couleeoutdoors