Ok... It's not quite Summer yet. And Mt. Rainier isn't open yet. I will be skinning around Crystal soon, not to mention the upcoming Crystal Fest. But I also enjoy Summer hiking Crystal. There are a handful of pothole lakes that are snow covered during Winter that I wanted to see.
Also, one can "beachcomb" the slopes. As the snow melts back from the base in the Spring, coins show up. Summer slopes show signs of elk presence, old lift tickets, coins, cigarette lighters, and occaisional single ski, car keys.
Without developed trails, like in a park, the hiking is a little hard - it is steep, slippery, rocky and rugged. There are service roads, the one up to Green Valley Rim is really rugged, but good enough for mountain bikers.
Did several hikes last Spring and Summer at Crystal. I kind of kick myself for not having a camera when I saw Hen Skin Lake covered with snow under blue sky, sunshine and snow covered slopes of Silver Basin.
Links to Summer 2006 hike to Elizabeth Lake off the Forest Queen run:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6091431925130087607&hl=en
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=511469267387478957&hl=en
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4023744346601477048&hl=en
A great deal of video quality is lost when viewing on the web. I find that it is
useful to minimize the window so that the video is about four inches wide.
Also you can get better video by downloading the video to your pc.
