Mt. Rainer

 August 26, 2020 Wednesday

The day started on a discouraging note. We decided to go out to eat for breakfast. The Inn's restaurant did not open for breakfast. I asked for suggestions from the desk clerk but she was not helpful, some maybes and might be open suggestions. We drove west, away from the park toward Ashford in search of an open restaurant. The Copper Creek Inn was closed as was the Wild Berry. The Paradise Village Inn and Restaurant was open.  It was a Ukrainian restaurant which seemed only to serve crepes, so we passed on that place. Drove the remainder of the way into town, but found nothing except some small markets. Discouraged we turned around, return to our Inn and ate breakfast out of our cooler, fruits, nuts and yogurt.

We got back on the road at about 10:00 and immediately entered the Park.

As usual, by waving our senior pass we were waved right in by the Ranger through the Nisqually Entrance, elevation 2023 ft, one of four entrances to the Park, all at the corners of its rectangular shape. We then proceeded on a beautiful 15 mile drive to the Henry Jackson ( a hawkish Democratic Senator from the Cold War period is probably not a good namesake for a national park center) Visitor Center in Paradise. The road was very windy and generally uphill as we rose a bit over 3000 ft in elevation. As the hour was getting late we passed all but one of many turnouts, stopping only at Ricksecker Point, an overlook off a one way loop.It offered spectacular views of a very awesome mountain. 

 

We then made our way to the Visitor Center and the Paradise Inn by about 10:45. The parking lot was full so we, along with a growing number of other visitors parked along the road. I wonder what happens on summer weekends when there would not be sufficient parking for all the visitors.

The virus strikes again. The Inn and all the other buildings, including the Visitor Center, were closed. There were Rangers outside the Center answering questions and handing out maps.

Everything seems to be named Paradise here. Allegedly, in 1889 when Martha Longmire first saw the southern valley below Mt. Rainier she exclaimed,"Oh, what a paradise." Hence the names. Now, what to do? The map showed a maze of trails on the mountain. The books and the Ranger all raved about the Skyline Trail. It enables one to hike halfway up the tallest active volcano in the contiguous US and the tallest point in the Cascade Mountain Range on a circular trail, so that is what we headed to.

The trail is rated as moderate. The trailhead started with half a dozen steps which had a quote from John Muir etched into them: "...the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens i ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings." The lower part of the trail is paved, so although it was steep at times, it was easy to negotiate. Also on the lower part it crossed many other trails, but fortunately the trail had very good signage and we were able to maintain our clockwise trail path.. Along the trail was a riot of wild flowers and spectacular mountain views.

As we moved up the trail the surprisingly large number of hikers on the paved trail quickly thinned out. Most of the hikers were not wearing masks. About .5 mile up we arrived at a small circular area where the paved trail ended.There were a few strollers and wheelchairs whose trip ended at this point. Off to the left is Alta Vista, but we decided to forgo that view and conserve our energy. It is not uncommon for the views of the 14,410 ft peak of Mt. Rainier to be shrouded in clouds, but on this morning we had a clear view not only of the peak, but also the Tatoosh mountains to the south and the Nisqually Glacier to the north and west. It is the seventh largest glacier on the mountain and covers 1.8 square miles. The 35 remaining glaciers on the mountain are the result of heavy snowfall. In a typical year 634 inches of snow falls in the Paradise area. That exceeds even the vaunted snowfall in the Wasahch range in Utah. The peak was known as Tahoma, or great white mountain, to the local tribes.

At this point the trail was no longer paved and at times it became difficult. We staggered up rocky staircases and the many loose rocks on the trail. Even though it was late August, we came upon snowfields which at times covered the trail. There were many places to stop and observe the breath taking views. We finally arrived at Glacier Vista, 6300 ft. It offered sparkling views of the glacier to the left and the peak straight ahead. 

 

From this point we could see the people up at Panorama Point, the crown jewel of this hike. However this final part of the trail was rated as strenuous, the trail was getting steeper and rougher and it did not seem to be worth the effort to negotiate the additional 600 ft in elevation and several hairpin turns. So we began the descent. Going down the unpaved portion of the trail was just as hard as going up. Because we did not complete the Skyline Trail Loop we did not get a close up view of Myrtle Falls, but we saw it from a distance.

When we got back down to the Visitor Center we snacked and took a bathroom break, We then searched for an easier, and perhaps less traveled trail.Tthe Ranger suggested the Nisqually Vista trail. It was a good suggestion. The trailhead for that is at the northwestern end of the lower parking lot so we had a short walk to get there. At the entrance to the trail there were two park service building built in the rustic style that appeared to be unoccupied. As promised, on this trail we encountered virtually no other people. Instead we encountered a variety of wildlife, many birds and small mammals and several deer.

There were fields of wildflowers and views of the Nisqually glacier, falls and river.

This area of the park was much lower in elevation than the Skyline Trail and there were many tall trees.

This trail was a 1.2 mile loop that had only a 200 ft gain in elevation, no steps and a well maintained gravel path. Easy on the feet. We walked back to the Visitor Center via the Avalanche Lily Trail and then along the road to our car. It was after 6 and the parking lot had thinned out, but there was still a lot of daylight, so we decided to drive down to Reflection Lake. We could have hiked there but it would have been a 4 mile round trip with elevation. Not doing that at that time of day. Our drive took us on Valley Road and then west on Stevens Canyon Road to a trailhead for the Lakes Trail. We then took a short hike to Reflection Lake. That afforded a nice view of the mountain.

Very few other hikers were there, but none were wearing masks. 

We then drove back toward Ashford past our Inn looking for a place to eat dinner. Riding down the mountain we picked up 16 miles in electricity. The Wild Berry, a Nepalese restaurant received good reviews, was open and was not crowded. So we ate there on the outdoor, covered patio. Good food, reasonably priced and quality service. It was after 9 when we got out of there so we just went back to the Inn.