Naches Peak Loop

Naches Peak Loop circles a rounded 5,926-foot summit just east of Chinook Pass, offering what many consider Mount Rainier's finest flower-meadow walk. The trail crests a ridge carpeted in late-July lupine, magenta paintbrush, and bistort, with Rainier's 14,411-foot glaciated cone filling the entire western horizon — a view that appears and disappears around every bend. Halfway around the loop a small tarn provides a perfect reflection of the summit, doubling the mountain in its mirror-still surface on windless mornings. The eastern half of the loop actually crosses into William O. Douglas Wilderness inside Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, where dogs are allowed, though they must be leashed back inside the national park boundary. Marmots whistle from boulder fields near the high point, and Clark's nutcrackers work the whitebark pine groves. The loop is best hiked counterclockwise to keep Rainier in front of you during the steeper descent section. Autumn turns the huckleberry fields brilliant crimson, extending the trail's season well into October.