Mt Rainier National Park

The next leg of our Washington vacation started with a rainy morning in Spokane. We left early, since we'd be driving 300 miles to get to Mt. Rainier National Park. Rather than just going on I-90, we took a slightly more scenic route for part of the journey, through the town of Pasco to see the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, before passing through Yakima and entering Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The air was a bit clearer than earlier in the week, and we had distant views of Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier from more than 60 miles away.

The vast farms of eastern Washington are interesting in their own right. Reminded us of North Dakota!

What trip through rural America is complete without a stop at a local produce superstore?! They have a kiddie roller coaster too....but it was closed until the fall. 😥

Views of Mt. Rainier as we approached the National Park.

We finally arrived in the national park in the late afternoon, and went straight to Paradise. While the national park is large, it has distinct sections that aren't directly connected. So we stuck to the southern portion of the park. It was very cloudy around the mountain (Mt. Rainier makes its own weather), so we couldn't see the summit, but we decided to do the Skyline Trail loop anyway. It's a great hike, with stunning views to the south, several waterfalls, wildflowers, and glaciers. It was quite cold near the top of the trail, and a bit of our hike was over snow despite being late July. Highly recommended hike!

A little black-tailed deer friend we met!

Views to the surrounding mountains.

Hello, buddy.

A huge waterfall and glacier. Mt. Rainier's summit is up in those clouds.

The upper portions of the trail were quite chilly.

Lots of wildflowers lined the trails.

Just a marmot hanging out.

Hikers on a snowy part of the trail.

Paul at Panorama Point.

A wide view looking up the trail.

It was like hiking up into the clouds!

Views for days.

There were lots of wildflowers on parts of the trail, especially in the wet valleys.

Stream, flowers, and mountains.

We saw about 5 or 6 marmots on the hike.

Another waterfall near the end of the trail.

After the hike we ventured into Ashford (the small town we were staying in) to look for something to eat. This town is very small, there's a general store and maybe 3-5 restaurants total. Most of the restaurants were already closed for the evening, and operations were impacted by COVID restrictions and the recent reopening of indoor dining, with noticeable lack of staff. The place we chose this evening was called Rainier Base Camp Bar & Grill. They had a cool setup, with a big open air eating location and ordering happening at a central location. Considering there weren't many options, this place was packed and service was pretty rough. We don't want to be too critical, because it's probably a good choice in better circumstances, but the staffing and COVID impacts were noticeable. They ran out of forks! 😂

After dinner we went back to our AirBnB and relaxed for the night. We had a hot tub, which was great after the day's hike. That evening, we made plans to go back to the same trail the next day early in the morning, hopefully for sunnier views - and we were rewarded with a brilliantly clear morning sky. We just did a portion of the loop trail this time, mostly looking for Mt. Rainier views.

A little bird family on the trail.

More wildflowers and mountains.

Yay! We can see the summit!

So much color in the brief summers here.

Brilliant view of Mt. Rainier - so different from the previous day.

We also had far views out to distant mountains. This is Mt. Saint Helens.

And Mt. Baker also looming in the distance.

Glorious early morning views of Mt. Rainier towering over everything.

One last look at the glaciers atop the mountain.

Next we went to the Rampart Ridge Trail, a 4.6 mile loop trail a bit to the Southwest. This was a nice forested hike, with a clearing near the top of the loop with great views of Mt. Rainier from a different angle.

Most of the hike looked like this, as we walked up and over a heavily forested ridge.

Views from the top of the trail.

A wetland section near the end of the trail.

We were lucky to have a brilliantly sunny second day in Mt. Rainier national park, since it had been so cloudy the day before. We definitely recommend at least two days here just to increase your chance of being able to see the mountain in its full glory.

After hiking, we went into town for lunch. We found a small Ukrainian restaurant called Paradise Village Restaurant. The woman running the place was quirky and made a mean iced americano. They have great crepes here, by the way! After more relaxing in the hot tub and some trip planning, we wrapped up our day with dinner in town at the Copper Creek Restaurant. Again this place was slammed and service was slow, but the staff there were very accommodating and the food was good. We'd recommend this place if you're visiting Mt. Rainier.

Complimentary "we're sorry service is slow" homemade blackberry pie! Yum!

After dinner we headed back to the AirBnB before our long drive the next day. If nothing else on this trip, we've been hiking uphill a lot! David's fitbit is cheering him on.

Oh, no biggie, just 200 flights of stairs in a day.

Next stop - Olympic National Park!