One day at Rainier National Park

Fire within its icy cold exterior

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With a towering height of 14000+ ft Mt. Rainier is one of those few constants for people in Seattle and Tacoma – A regular, familiar face that shows up alone or with a saucer disk on non-rainy days of the emerald city. Even people not living in Washington are pretty familiar with this giant since it is the highest peak and the most popular gem of the Pacific North West. Needless to say, its fame makes the surrounding area a must visit. So, say hello to the next National Park I recently visited - Mt Rainier National Park!

With forest so green and a mountain so white, how can Rainier National Park not be inviting.

This June I finally decided to make a day trip to Rainier National Park and unlike my customary travel instincts, I chose to take the tourist friendly Paradise Route from Seattle via the Ashford Nisqually entrance of the park. The drive to Rainier national park from Seattle takes about 2-2.5 hours depending on traffic and within 5 minutes of entering you are greeted with a super pretty vista of Rainier near Kautz Creek. 

Peek at some other peaks too while you are there.

If you are a hiking fan, you can explore Kautz Creek Trail to Henry’s hunting Ground here. Unfortunately, since I was travelling with my parents and had just a day to cover the park, I did not indulge in hiking activities during my visit.

Cougar Rock Point sure looked dramatic!

Small turns on the gradually snaking road will then take you to a very abrupt stop around a corner leading to Cougar Rock. Cougar Rock pullout is one of the best spots in the park to see Mt Rainier with Nisqually River and some craggy terrain. I personally loved this spot for two reasons – the river bed was very accessible and was not crowded at all even though it is right next to one of the biggest campgrounds of the park.

Could only get the bridge and one tier of Christine Falls, but you get the point right?

Next up, just about 5 mins uphill you will sight a seemingly tiny waterfall from the road. But don’t be fooled by the size here. Park your car and walk down a small trail to get a sense of how pretty a tiny waterfall can be! Christine Falls was another very accessible spot on our way up to Paradise. Christine falls two tiers drop with a stone arch bridge adorning its lower tier sure stole my heart. From Christine falls the road starts to get a considerably winding and you gain height rapidly.

Ridges and the wind!

Soon we ended up crossing several vista points and small waterfalls and chose not to make all those tempting stops because I was enjoying driving way too much and was waiting to get to Narada Falls. But then during that never-ending array of viewpoints, we reached one from where you can see Rampart Ridge and the point was just irresistible! 

I pause and stare, at a view so rare...

With icy cold wind carrying away all my fatigue and the plunge of the ridge making me even more excited about Narada Falls, I decided to make no more stops and head straight to Narada Falls. And true to its image, Narada Falls did not disappoint at all.

Tried to get the two tiers again, but only got the top tier

Narada Falls overlook will give you the gist of the falls right at the parking lot, but to truly marvel the crazy fall of this waterfall, you would need to walk down atleast 0.2 miles on a narrow pavement at the end of the mountain. Unfortunately, I could only go half way down this path because the whole way still had almost 2 feet of snow, or well ice. But I was able to get to a point from where I could see the 2^nd tier of the falls and gawk at the loud 50 feet wall of water in front of me. 

This ends up becoming Narada Falls!

Apparently, the upper tier of Narada Falls freezes and turns into a wall of icicles during winters. It looked so stunning in June, I can only imagine how beautiful it would be in winters.

well, no reflection because there was no lake and barely any mountain; but still it was all so pretty.

Anyways, before hitting Paradise you might want to pay a visit to the reflection lakes. Reflection lakes is termed as the best place to view sunset in the park and on clear days, the lake has a crystal-clear reflection of Rainier, thus the name. Unfortunately, by the time I reached Reflection Lakes, Mt Rainier was shrouded in dense clouds and then there was also the case of the frozen lake. 

No luck at adjacent lakes either, for obvious reasons.

By the way, my visit was in the first week of June aka first week of summer and still the lakes of the area were not ready to let go of their frozen state. And reflection lake had company, its neighbor Louise Lake was in the same hibernation mode and Upper Sun Beam Falls were hardly welcoming the sun.

Hello frozen Paradise!

And since moving along this route would have taken us out of the park, we took a turn to Paradise. Meandering roads, heavy snow cover, hardly any waterfalls or lakes or any of the familiar terrains you would have seen so far. And then you reach an oldish looking visitor center and face the southern slope of Mt Rainier directly. This visitor center, known as Paradise Jackson visitor Center is one of the newest visitor centers of the park and remains open for most parts of the year. In the same vicinity you would also get a glimpse of the historic Paradise Inn that has been running on this active volcano for years now. At Paradise, you can indulge in skiing, snowtubing and snowshoeing during winters, aka from November to May, enjoy snow play area and trails in June and get lost in wildflowers and colorful hiking trails from July to October! So yes, we didn’t get to see the fabled wildflower carpet of Paradise but had a fun snow day for sure!

The famous cap or saucer cloud(s) of Rainier so up close!

Some extra stuff that might be helpful –

1.   Leave early for the National park on any given day. It tends to get really busy during summer weekends. If you are travelling from Seattle, try and leave by 8:30 A.M. max, you would be able to cover everything and do a trail or two comfortably by 6:00 P.M.

2.  Paradise is the access point to Skyline Trail, the highest hiking trail of the park for intermediate hikers (negligible supervision required). If you are a hiking fan, you might want to do Paradise before Reflection Lakes and see the sunset at Reflection Lakes.

3.  You do not need to layer in the Park up during summers. However, go prepared! Carry a puff jacket or a heavy rain jacket. It gets really windy near Rampart Ridge, Narada Falls and occasionally at Paradise.

4.  Check for weather and visibility regularly before and during your visit and modify your travel itinerary accordingly. In my case it was showing sunny 2 days before my trip (when I planned it) and on the day the weather changed to Rainy at 10:00 A.M. Point being, weather is super unpredictable, and you need to be flexible with your travel plans.

5.  Entry to the park currently is 30 dollars for a private vehicle and the entry ticket is valid for an entire week in the park, so keep your ticket safe and handy if you are planning to stay in the park or visit again in the week.

6.  Paradise Inn has a small cafeteria with limited vegan options. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you might want to carry your own food.

7.  During winters, it is mandatory to have chained/traction tires and the park does close during heavy snowfall, so you might want to check the NPS site for latest updates before planning your trip. During summers, literally any car would do in the park because the roads are well maintained and very gradual.
8. If you are not planning a day's trip or are not travelling from close by areas, there for staying options, your best bet would be Ashford. But if you are planning to stay in the park itself, make sure to book a room at Paradise Inn well in advance.

You can also do a lot of bird watching in the park, so carry your binoculars! 

And that was it, all I could do in one day at Rainier National Park, but you sure can do a lot of trails if you have time in your hand! Hope you liked this virtual tour of Mt Rainier National Park and found it helpful. If you have covered the place with a different and more interesting itinerary, do let me know! Might help me for my next trip to the park.

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