www.turns-all-year.com Mt. Rainier cross country skiing photos from Grand Park, Washington Turns All Year: Previous Home Page Galleries This is a gallery of images which appeared on the Turns All Year home page in the past. Thumbnail images on this page can be clicked to view the full-sized photos, and lead into a slide show sequence for the gallery. The photos are from a fall cross country skiing trip to Grand Park, a large meadowland on the north side of Mt. Rainier, Washington. List Galleries            < Older  Browse Galleries  Newer >

Turns All Year CD-ROM The complete version of this photo gallery is now available on Turns All Year CD-ROM. Below you can view thumbnail photos from this gallery. Turns All Year CD-ROM contains over 180 photo galleries, containing more than 3200 full-sized photos, from backcountry skiing and snowboarding trips in the Pacific Northwest.

from November 18, 2002: Grand Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, November 14, 2002 Lower trail to Grand Park Lake Ellinor, Washington First meadow Cross country skiing into Grand Park Skiing through silver snags Cross country skiing across Grand Park Good cross country skiing Skyscraper and Mt. Rainier Strider and Mt. Rainier Strider gets some turns New use for cables Mt. Fremont Photos by Charles Eldridge

Associated trip report: Road 73 was easily drivable past 4500', where we parked on a thin veneer of snow/ice. We hiked the trail to Grand Park, and along the way there was virtually no snow under the trees and only about 1" of refrozen, rain-soaked snow in forest openings below about 5000', casting doubt about the wisdom of carrying our skis in. As we climbed up to the Grand Park plateau, however, the snow deepened in the forest openings, and we found about 6" of snow evenly overlying the meadows of Grand Park (5500-5800'). There was a crust about 2" down which generally supported us, so the cross country skiing turned out to be great despite the thinness of the "snowpack". In a few places the snow became sticky in the afternoon due to the sunshine.    We got a good view of Rainier when we first reached the plateau, but then clouds and a snow squall moved in. This proved to be fairly short-lived, though, and Rainier came back out in all of its glory for the rest of the afternoon. We skied to the southern tip of Grand Park, then returned the 2 miles to the northern tip and the trail via a meandering course, exploring the east edge of the plateau and getting a (very) few turns along the way. We were able to ski a few hundred feet down off the plateau, until the trail went into the trees and there was no snow.    Robie, thanks for the inspiration to do this as a fall trip. The big question: does this qualify as a countable ski trip? Charles Eldridge

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