Day Hike - Indian Henry's Hunting Ground

The two pit toilets in the parking lot were open and well stocked with TP. 

Cross the street, and the trail starts with a boardwalk. The boardwalk goes to the bank of the Kautz Creek and  a viewpoint of the tip top of Mount Rainier, which is just a hint of what to come. You can skip the viewpoint and take the trail leaving the boardwalk on the right. There is about 1 mile of flat trail, which is a good warm-up for what’s to come after you pass the Kautz Creek, which really is just a small creek this time of year, and we easily crossed on the sturdy log bridge.​ (As a side note, there were maybe only one or two other stream crossings​ on the way to the Hunting Grounds, and no danger of getting wet feet.​) 

Since this trailhead is near the edge of the park, it starts at a relatively low elevation, and you have to do a lot of climbing to get up to the views. ​After crossing Kautz Creek, for the next 3​.5 miles you will climb climb climb. Fortunate​ly the plethora of mushrooms ​give you ​an excuse​ to ​take a quick break and admire their weirdness and take a pic. (This would be a great place and time for a Naturalist trip, and I wish we'd had one in the group.) The trees​ eventually thin out to give you views of some of the nearby rocky crags, then it opens up to the south with sweeping views all the way to Mount Saint Helens. Shortly after, you get your first good glimpse of Mount Rainier, and then a better one as you reach the crest at ​5​500 ft. ​The views keep getting better and better as you approach the cabin at the "hunting ground". The reds and yellows of the shrubbery look wonderful in front of the expansive views of Mount Rainier, which looks totally different from this southwest vantage than I had ever seen before. Most of our group had lunch on the porch of the ranger cabin facing the beautiful meadow, but some went to the back of the cabin facing the mountain. There were only two other people there who left after about 10 minutes, then we had the place all to ourselves. FYI, the cabin was locked, but we could look through the windows. There does not appear to be an outdoor pit toilet at the cabin site.

From the cabin, we continued 0.8 miles more to Mirror Lakes. This was an easy trek, slightly downhill overall, and directly towards the mountain. Parts of the trail here were swampy, and there were several stream crossings with log bridges that were broken or had boards missing. It took careful steps, balancing, and some really long strides, but we made it through without wet feet. If you need water to filter, this is a good place, because there is not another great water source until 2.4 miles from the trailhead. Mirror lake was pretty small, but it did not disappoint. The perfect mountain reflection and surrounding trees looked just like a Bob Ross painting. 

Only saw about 10 people all day.