Mount Rainier from Tipsoo Lake
— the small lake the mountain leans into.
Not only on a wall.
“Tipsoo Lake sits at about 5,300 feet on the northeast side of Mount Rainier, just below Chinook Pass on Highway 410. The lake is small, a few acres at most, and on still summer mornings it carries the whole mountain in reflection. The Naches Peak Loop Trail climbs the ridgeline above it, joining a section of the Pacific Crest Trail on the way around. The road is closed by snow most years from November into late May or June. The wildflower window is short, late July through early August. People stop at the pull-off for a few minutes; some stay longer.
Mount Rainier from Tipsoo Lake, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Tipsoo Lake sits at about 5,300 feet on the northeast shoulder of Mount Rainier, just below Chinook Pass on Highway 410, the road known as the Mather Memorial Parkway. The lake straddles the boundary between Mount Rainier National Park and the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Chinook Pass tops out at 5,430 feet, among the highest paved road passes in Washington State. The name Tipsoo comes from a Chinook Jargon word meaning hairy or grassy, applied to the marsh grass that rings the shore. The mountain itself rises to 14,411 feet across the valley, an active stratovolcano roughly ten miles west by air.
Tipsoo Lake is a glacial tarn, a small basin scoured by ice and filled by snowmelt and seepage. The water is shallow, clear, and very cold; the surface is still on most mornings because the basin is sheltered by ridges on three sides. When the wind drops, the lake takes Mount Rainier whole onto its surface, the summit ten miles west across the valley. The Naches Peak Loop Trail leaves the parking pull-off and climbs onto the ridge above the lake, returning along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail. The full loop runs about 3.5 miles with roughly 600 feet of elevation gain, and most walkers take about two hours.
Highway 410 through Chinook Pass closes for snow most years from November into late May or early June, so Tipsoo Lake is a summer-only viewpoint by car. The Washington State Department of Transportation announces the spring opening when crews finish avalanche clearance, and posts the closure date in autumn. The wildflower bloom around the lake runs from late July through early August, the same short window as Paradise on the south side of the mountain. There is no fee at the lake itself; the pull-off is at the road. The Sunrise area, on the same side of the mountain, lies about twenty miles by road to the south.