If you have the chance and live near Mount Rainier, drive up to Tipsoo Lake sometime this week.

Rainier is known for its wildflowers, and rightfully so.  Thousands of people have visited Sunrise (now slightly past prime) over the past month, and tens of thousands will visit Paradise during the remainder of this month, hiking the many trails up there, jaws dropping at the beauty of the meadows.  But what if you could get the same experience in a short (less than 1/2 mile) and almost level walk?

For the next week, Tipsoo is it.  Of course, you can hike the Naches Peak Loop, which includes Tipsoo lake, and probably get even more in the way of great vistas.  But, for a super-condensed version of what makes Rainier special, take the short loop around the lake.  Preferably, you’ll take it clockwise.  Once you make the first turn, you’ll see Rainier reflected in the waters of the lake — this is a great sunrise location, by the way, but bring the bug repellent! — with lupine and magenta paintbrush lining the shore.  Then, swing around the other end of the lake, and find yourself knee-deep in pasqueflower, mountain daisy, broad-leaf arnica, Sitka valerian, plus the ubiquitous paintbrush and lupine.  All you need to do is use a long lens and zero in on groups of flowers, or shoot through an entire field, using a wide aperture to isolate fitting blooms among a riot of color.  The photo I have included here is merely the first shot (out of almost two hundred!) that I finished processing.  But, seriously, if you love Rainier wildflowers, or if you’ve never visited the mountain during bloom season and want to know what all the excitement is about, I can’t think of a better way to experience it in a “crash course” than a walk around Tipsoo Lake in the next week.  After that, I suspect the flowers will start fading soon, so hurry!

POSTSCRIPT:  As promised, here are a few more photos from the same shoot.  I was back up there a couple of weeks later and, as I expected, most of the flowers were completely gone.  It still made for a nice hike, but I wouldn’t count on Tipsoo as being a good choice for  photography much after early-mid-August.