Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
I have seen many amazing places and visited some of the most beautiful parks on earth, but the day we spent at Mt. Rainier last summer was one of the top 5 most beautiful days of my life. (I mean…look at these wildflowers!)
As you begin the famous Skyline Trail hike from the Visitor’s Center in aptly-named Paradise, Washington, the below quote greets you:
” . . . . the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings.”
John Muir, on visiting Mt. Rainier
We visited Mt. Rainier in August, during the height of wildflower season, and were blessed with a bluebird hiking day: perfectly clear blue skies, a light breeze, and a warm sun.
Mount Rainier sits about sixty miles southeast of Seattle, and is likely one of the most famous mountains in the United States. It is an active stratovolcano and at 14,411 feet, the tallest mountain in Washington State’s Cascade Mountains. It is, famously, one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the high probability of its imminent eruption.
Mount Rainier also has a very famous neighbor–Mt. Saint Helens, a still-active volcano that erupted in 1980, producing the most destructive volcanic event in the continental United States. The eruption, which lasted for more than nine hours, killed 57 people, destroyed over 200 homes, created lahars (volcanic mudflows) that ran for 17 miles, and spewed an ash plume that rose 16 miles above sea level. In Seattle that day, over sixty miles away, people collected falling ash in the streets and sold it in bottles as keepsakes. The ash plume even drifted into Canada. The explosion reduced St. Helens’ height by 1,300 feet and left a crater 1 mile deep.
After grabbing some high-end coffees and pastries at the famous Starbucks Reserve in downtown Seattle, we set off for Mt. Rainier.
On a pretty day, you can easily see the mountain from Seattle itself. In fact, Matt and I have flown into Seattle several times and if you’re seated on the left side of the plane, you’re guaranteed an incredible close-up of the volcano.
Mt. Rainier is about a two-hour drive from Seattle. We entered the park from the Paradise Valley gateway.
The road from the entrance takes cars on a curvy loop around the mountain, offering several different opportunities for photos. There were very few people in the park that day, so we made several pit stops as we climbed to Paradise Valley.
The most exciting part of the day happened just as we were about to begin our hike. I was talking to Matt when I saw what appeared like a large, black dog wandering down from the trailhead. When the dog got closer, I realized it was a black bear! She headed straight for the picnic tables, where other tourists didn’t even notice her.
Despite having lived in Knoxville, Tennessee for four years (on the edge of the Smoky Mountains) and in Denver for two years, I had never seen a bear in the wild before. It surprised me how small she was! When she started trying to eat food from the picnic tables, a park ranger chased her away up the trail. The ranger told us that the bear was a young female that they had had to relocate several times due to her familiarity with the Visitor’s Center.
Skyline Trail
Probably the most famous hike in the park is the Skyline Trail, which begins at the Paradise Visitor’s Center. The hike starts with a climb up the John Muir steps and then continues on a steep climb up a paved path.
We didn’t get too winded during the climb, however, because we had to stop every five minutes to take photos. I couldn’t decide which viewpoint was lovelier–the wildflowers scaling the pathway up, or the view of the valley and Cascade Range behind us.
Several other trails branch off from the Skyline Trail, but we stayed on the path. As we climbed, we had to dodge slabs of ice and snow that still hadn’t melted, even in the heat of August.
Our two main stopping points were overlooks: the Glacier Vista and Panorama Point. At Glacier Vista, we got an incredible close-up of Mt. Rainier and the Nisqually Glacier on its southwestern face.
When facing away from the mountain, the Cascade Range sprawled out behind us. We ran into a park ranger who helped us pick out the various peaks and mountains in the range, including Mt. Saint Helens, with its blown-off top.
We had the option to continue the route forward, which would loop us back around to the Visitor’s Center, but instead we simply turned around and headed back the way we came. On the way down, we encountered a marmot, which is like a big squirrel, feasting in the wildflowers. At the Visitor’s Center, we grabbed snacks and souvenirs, and then headed out of the park.
