Hiking Skyline Trail in Mt. Rainier - July 11, 2024
We made it to the Paradise Visitor Center parking for the Skyline trail early to get a spot. We parked in the lower lot because the lot by the Visitor Center was signed for a 2 hour limit. To remember everything, we needed to make a few trips back and forth, doh. We stopped by the restroom, not finding the water filler until after the hike, so had to settle for restroom sink water. It was nice and cold. We found the sign that showed the latest snow cover -- green: clear, blue: full snow cover, and green/blue dashed: partially covered. The color coding was different than the NPS.gov site that we were monitoring before our trip. It also recommended taking the Golden Gate Trail instead of east Skyline. This cut off a mile, and I was planning it anyway. So, about 4.5 miles and 2000 feet elevation gain. Paradise was at 5400 ft, and Cougar Rock Campground was at 3100 ft.
Trying to get a picture of some of the blue in the glaciers. Mt. Rainier has fingers of glaciers coming down each side.
Playing in the snow. The trail was paved at first; I pulled out the trekking poles when it was no longer. My arms got tired using them later, so Travis happily used them for a bit for his knees. They were very helpful in the snow too; I liked them going up too. We had to watch for snow bridges where snow was hiding water underneath as we hiked along. There was more snow cover than I expected, but it was in sections, so there was solid surface breaks.
Look at all that snow.
We had to climb/slide down these blue slides.
Flowers poking through. In the North Cascade Visitor Center, we learned that the flowers melt a cleared out circle in the snow where they pop up through. Some did look like that. Below fireweed like we have seen in Alaska before.
At the end of the hike was Myrtle Falls, which can be reached without doing the Skyline hike, so was popular -- of course, but look at that view.
We used the real water bottle filler and had a picnic outside of the Paradise Inn. Then we went into the Inn to get a sundae for me (ice cream after a look hike). I looked in the Visitor Centers and other gift shops for a 2025 calendar and could not find one. I finally found one in North Cascades VC gift shop, but it was not produced by the National Park. I had to get a picture of the famous stairs.
From the lower parking lot, we next did the Nisqually Vista trail; it was only 200 ft elevation gain and much shorter. There was a volunteer Park Ranger at the vista who we asked lots of questions. Some snow on this trail too but not as much. There were boys working to shovel it off and a Park Ranger supervising them. We did not know if they were volunteering or had some community service to do. We could not read their shirts well when passing by to tell. The vista was very good with view of the Nisqually Glacier, the Paradise River (clear water), and the Nisqually River (cloudy water with glacial flour). However, you cannot see much in the vista pictures.
Then we headed out of the Paradise area, where we could see that people had park way down the road, toward the Reflection Lakes. It was too breezy and rippled to get a good reflection, but still pretty.
Lastly, we visited Narada Falls, which was a short and popular hike to the viewing point.
This was a cold night camping; I was not cold the night before. I slept in a hoodie, pants, and tall wool socks but still cold.
Next up...
final day in Mt. Rainier and to Olympic
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