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Welcome to Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State.
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Mount Rainier National Park is one of our favorite parks for hiking
with its great scenery and epic trails.
There are hikes for everyone, from family friendly to very challenging.
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The Bench and Snow Lakes Trail is in Mount Rainier National Park
along Stevens Canyon Road and is 17 miles from the Nisqually Entrance on the west side of the park.
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At the Bench and Snow Lakes trailhead, there is room for about 20 cars in the parking lot.
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This is a moderate 2.5 mile hike with about 600 feet of elevation gain.
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The trail gains elevation quickly while walking through a lot of vegetation at the start of the hike.
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"I'm a military"
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There is a viewpoint of a small pond along the trail.
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At .75 miles into the trail, we reached Bench Lake.
Bench Lake gets its name form the flat area around the lake call “the bench.”
The view of the lake is difficult to see through the trees, but it can be reached via a small path down to it.
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Another half mile of walking brings you to Snow Lake.
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Taking a right at the junction leads to the end of the lake.
Alexandra and our little one played at the wilderness campground while I explored.
So at the sign post you can take two ways. You can take a left and go to the campground and the pit toilet.
Or you can take a right and go down to the lake.
I heard both ways are good.
So, I started off going to the right, then I'll backtrack and go back and take a left at the sign.
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Just past the "End of Maintained Trail" sign, there is a large field of boulders.
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A left at the trail sign brings you to the Snow Lake campground.
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This is where you'll find the best views of the lake.
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So I took a left at the trial sign and made it to the Snow Lake campground where you get a wonderful view of Snow Lake.
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Snow Lake possibly gets its name from the snow that often rings the lake until late summer.
We went in August and it still had some snow at the far end of the lake.
I took a great photo of a camper who was at one of the two campsites.
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Once we were done exploring Snow Lake, we hiked back to the trail and back to the parking lot.
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