On Red Mountain with view of Rainier

They both kicked my butt and if I hadn’t started crying on the way down would have likely been painting each other’s toe nails and eating bon-bons at the trailhead waiting for my pokey self to come off the mountain.

Aptly named, Red Mountain is hard to miss. There’s a bit of a scramble track to get to the top. The actual trail goes just to the left of it and ends in a narrow saddle looking North down to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie and across the Apline Wildernes and South toward Rainier. It’s an amazing place.

The trail was a bit tricky in the flats of Commonwealth Basin due to snow in the trees, and most folks don’t bother with this dead-end spur but instead take the turn and head up to the Kendall Katwalk.