Palisades Lake Trail

I am busy completing all of the hikes found in the Mountaineers “50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park” 1988 edition. After today, I have only 3 hikes left to have essentially done them all. It is a pity I waited so long to do this hike. The view above is the upper Palisades Lake, which is at the end of the maintained trail. The wildflowers were out in this bloom. It was sunny. For the photographer, the only real problem was the haze from forest fires in Canada. The temperature was perfect, and the trail was immaculately maintained. Except for the trail to the first lake (Sunrise Lake), I took all the side trails to trips around the lakes that I passed. The first was Sunrise Lake, seen from the Sunrise Lookout. I’ve seen this lake in the past, thinking that it was impossibly far down, but actually is a very pleasant hike to get to.
Lupine and Indian Paintbrush dominate the floor of the forests.
Flowers along the trail
There were a number of large and expansive meadows bordered by the rock cliffs of the Palisades
Clover Lake was the second lake on the trail.
I passed Clover Lake, and then Pete Lake, which had a campsite. There was also Tom and Harry Lake which I could not find. I hiked on to the Upper Palisades Lake, going a little beyond to see an overlook of the Lower Palisades Lake, reached by a primitive unsupported trail. On return, there was a short grunt up to Hidden Lake, which is a gem very worth the effort to get there.
Hidden Lake
View from the Hidden Lake trail. On the horizon is a flat spot, which is the Sunrise Lookout, the start of the trail.
More flowers, with Pete Lake sticking out
The Garmin data is slightly skewed in that I forgot to turn it off until I got several miles down the road. In reality, it was about 7.5 – 8.2 miles hiking, with 2250 feet elevation gain (approximately). This is just slightly different than the guidebook suggests.
https://web.archive.org/web/20191210101659if_/https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/embed/1904569977
All in all, it was a marvelous hike, and I felt great the entire time. About the last two miles, my left knee started to hurt quite seriously again. I thought that it was healed, but it wasn’t. This made each step dreadfully painful, and slowed me way down. I might have to postpone some hiking trips planned in the next few weeks, and do some cycle touring instead. Bicycling is VERY easy on my knees. We’ll see.