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Mount Rainier National Park

Washington's Mount Rainier National Park's is a park that is easy to get to because it is located a mere 103 miles from Seattle and is truly a gem in the Pacific Northwest.

Washington
2011

About The Park

The park includes all of Mount Rainier which, at 14,417’ (4,394m), is the second highest, and the most glaciated, mountain in the lower 48 states. Mount Whitney, in California, is 88 feet higher. It is also an active stratovolcano.

The mountain is by far the single most spectacular feature in the National Park. It’s huge and an amazing sight and on all of the roads in and around the park there are many viewpoints that beg one to stop and take the picture. The mountain is covered with 35 square miles of glaciers and snow fields.

The most popular destination in the park, for the majority of the visitors, is the Paradise area which is located on the southern slope of Mount Rainier. There are several roads that lead into the park depending upon the direction you are coming from and your driving preference.

The views of the mountain are best coming in from the east on Washington’s White Pass Scenic Byway (US 12). There isn’t really much beauty coming in from the east or west.  You pass mostly farmland but coming from the west you go over White Pass and that’s a pretty scenic drive. Coming in from the Seattle/Tacoma area, the quickest way in is via the Nisqually entrance. A more scenic way, from the Seattle/Tacoma area, would be to take state road 410 which wraps around the Northern and Eastern part of the park. It’ll be a long, slow, but very scenic, drive and I would only recommend it if you have no plans to drive up to the Sunrise area of the park. If you’re planning on visiting the Sunrise area, then you’ll be driving this road to get there from the Paradise area and you probably won’t want to spend the time driving it again.

Wildlife

Black bears, marmots, foxes, cougars, mountain goats, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and skunks to name a few of the larger mammals.

Lodging

Paradise Inn

The only lodging in the park is at the historic Paradise Inn. Built in 1916 it is situated on the slope of the mountain at 5,400 feet. It’s a beautiful lodge in the tradition of the iconic national parks lodges. There’s a veranda with beautiful views of the Tatoosh Mountains on one side and Mount Rainier looming very large on the other. Typical of national parks lodges reservations are recommended long in advance. The Lodge has been modernized but the rooms are, to say the least, very small. If you travel with lots of suitcases, or large suitcases, you’re going to feel like you’re in a closet. With a bed, night table, and maybe a desk there’s no place to put clothes away and your suitcase may be on the floor. Travel light!.

Hiking

The Paradise area, at the base of Mount Rainier, has many trails criss-crossing the lower part of the mountain of varying difficulty levels. They are walking distance from the lodge and nearby visitor center and, as such, have lots of traffic on them.

Skyline trail

Paradise area - This is an easy 1-mile round-trip trail that you can take to Myrtle Falls. It is basically wheelchair accessible and has only about a 100 foot elevation gain.

Panorama Point Hike

Paradise area - You can reach Panorama Point via the Skyline and Golden gate trails which make it about a 4-mile loop and, with an elevation gain of 1700 feet, it is considered a strenuous hike. You travel up the mountain to a point at 6,800 feet. There’s nothing special about the point per se - there’s just a bunch of rocks up there where you can sit and enjoy the view which is little different than the view you’ve been seeing hiking up since there are no trees or other obstructions along the way. Even in August we still hiked across snow fields. Kids were sliding down them on plastic garbage bags.

*note* You can hike up Mount Rainier to Camp Muir, at 10,188 feet, but no further without a permit and a guide. Mount Rainier is a serious mountain climbing destination. Climbers have to deal with travel over glaciers, crevasses, rock falls, cliffs and sudden changes in weather - all of which can be dangerous, or fatal, especially for the unprepared.   

Pinnacle Peak hike

Near Paradise area - A few miles down the park road opposite Reflection Lake is the Pinnacle Peak trail head. This is a strenuous 3-mile round trip hike that basically travels straight up Pinnacle Peak in the Tatoosh Mountains. While the elevation gain is only 1100 feet it’s pretty much a calf-burner with little of the lateral movement that some of the trails up Mount Rainier near the lodge have. It start in a forest but, once beyond the forest, you get stunning views of Mount Rainier which is behind you as you travel up but straight ahead for the trip down.

For most people the hike ends at a saddle between two peaks which is the end of the maintained trail. At the saddle, looking south on a clear day, you can see Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and Mount Hood. It is another half mile of scrambling over rocks and boulders to get to the top of Pinnacle Peak. I went about half-way up and decided that my surgically-repaired knees were not going to like the trip back down to the saddle. And the rest of the hike down to the trail head was going to be that much less fun.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to hike up further but are not ready to hike down, there are clearly visible trails emanating from the saddle that you can take as much of or as little of as you want.

Narada Falls

This waterfall is right next to the Paradise-Longmire road and there’s no hike needed to see the not very impressive top of it. To get the best view of the falls there is a quarter mile trail down to a lookout where you can view the falls. You can also hike this from the Paradise area and it is about a 2-mile round trip hike.

Reflection Lake

There’s a nice 4-mile loop around Reflection Lake rated as a moderate hike. For the non-hikers you can drive to the lake, just a few miles from the Paradise area, and walk around the lake for as much or as little as you like. Hiking down to this from the Paradise area adds significant elevation gain (when you hike back up). You can also hike to Narada Falls from here which is about a 2+ mile round trip.

From the Paradise Inn area you can hike down to Reflection Lake where the Pinnacle Peak trail head also is. From the Paradise Inn area it is about 2.5 miles to the road where the parking area is for Reflection Lake and the Pinnacle Peak trail head. Hiking down from Paradise will add about 5 miles to any hike you do around Reflection Lake or to the Pinnacle Peak hike.

Shadow Lake trail

Sunrise area – This is an easy trail without significant elevation gain. It passes the Emmons Glacier Overlook with a beautiful view of the largest glacier on Mount Rainier (which is not visible from the Paradise area). The maintained trail ends short of Shadow Lake and we didn’t take it past there. This is a not-well-traveled trail, so you won’t see lots of people, but you will see lots of pretty wild flowers and we did watch a bear from about 50’ away for about 10 minutes. On the way back we watched a large hoary marmot foraging just a few feet from the trail.

Mount Fremont Lookout Trail

Sunrise area – This is a 5.6 mile strenuous trail up the mountain to an old fire lookout tower. The trail is scenic with beautiful views. It travels up a mountain-side covered with scree. The lookout provides 360 degree panoramic views. We sat there and had something to eat until the insects discovered us and we had to high-tail it out of there and back down. Based on that experience I would recommend slathering up with insect repellant before heading up the trail.

Mount Rainier National Park Photo Gallery

Other Resources

Mt Rainier National Park on the National Parks Service Website - NPS.gov

Mt Rainier National Park - Wikipedia

Mt Rainier Lodging - Paradise Inn

Official Site of Mt Rainier Tourism

Mt Rainier Waterfalls and Associated Hikes

Other National Parks and National Monuments Within a Day’s Drive

Since going to either of these national parks would probably have you flying into or out of Seattle the distances from Seattle are listed.

Olympic National Park Massive trees, Hurricane Ridge and two rainforests lie 260 miles to the northwest and about a 5 plus hour drive to Port Angeles. If you are going to Kalaloch then driving along the southern edge of Olympic is about 240 miles.
Olympic National Park is about 75 miles west of Seattle.

North Cascades National Park With 300 glaciers among its jagged peaks and relatively few visitors it is about 212 miles to the north and is a 4.5 to 5 hour drive. Seattle to North Cascades is about 125 miles.

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument The site of the massive 1980 volcanic eruption is 120 miles south and about a 3.5 hour drive.

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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

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