At last. My friend Cheryl and I were on the last section of the Wonderland Trail to finish our three year section hiking odyssey. The section between Box Canyon and Longmire gets a bad rap from following closely to the road. While it is close, I found the trail to still have it's charms and shouldn't be overlooked simply due to it's relatively close proximity to the road. The Stevens Canyon section is especially beautiful and I enjoyed this whole 12-13 mile section a lot more than I thought I would.
Looking over the stone guard rail down into Box Canyon is pretty impressive.Vertical Panorama of Box CanyonWe started right where we left off at the Box Canyon trailhead. Apparently the doesn't actually go through the tunnel on the road, we missed it somehow. Luckily we were able to pick up the trail on the other end of the tunnel.I have found that I take a lot of pictures of trail signs. We were heading up to and beyond Reflection Lake.Stevens Creek bridge PanoramaThere was an impressive logjam on Stevens Creek.Stevens Creek logjamStevens CreekIn a forest of mostly uniform trees, we found this one to be highly interesting.As we entered Steven's Canyon, the basalt flow that comprised this rock was pretty neat to see, and was one of the larger ones I saw on the whole trail.Sylvia Falls.Some recent trail work had been done on this section where the hillside had slipped away. The path was pretty narrow here.Some recent trail work had been done on this section where the hillside had slipped away. The path was pretty narrow here.Looking down after climbing up out of Steven's Canyon a bit.The crossing at the base of Martha FallsMartha FallsMartha FallsDetour sign on the other side of the fallsAt this point we started seeing lots of flowersAvalanche LiliesTrilliumAvalanche LiliesAvalanche LiliesOften blooming within days of the snow melting off, the Avalanche Lilies here were just starting.The closer to Reflection Lake we got, the more snow there was. Luckily the trail follows near the road at this point making getting lost, unlikely.The snow was off and on at this point.There were footprints to follow, so someone obviously knew where they were going.There were footprints to follow, so someone obviously knew where they were going.A nice view of Louise LakeAt this point we lost the trail and wondered around the snow a bit. We did manage to eventually find our way over to the road where the trail is literally the sidewalk for a few hundred yards as it goes by Reflection Lake. You can zoom in on the map below to see where the trail goes and where we went astray.At last, Reflection Lake. There were lots of tourists here with their cars.Reflection Lake, not quite melted out.Reflection Lake PanoramaRainier and Reflection LakeHeading down hill now for the first time all day, we stopped at Narada Falls and had lunch. Again, there were lots of tourists here.Paradise RiverI believe this is Madcap FallsCarter FallsParadise River below Eagle Peak.Nisqually RiverCrossing the Nisqually River
Map of our route.
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Beautiful images, Jay! Glad you got to finally finish this journey…
Thanks Sue. I really enjoyed it!
You photo of Martha Falls that includes both the stairs as well as the log bridges is just super! Great framing and camera settings! Just super!
Thanks Bill. I find that if I take enough pictures, sometimes I get lucky and a few of them actually turn out good.