This past weekend Erin and I drove up to Mount Rainier National Park. The park is about 3 hours away from where we live in Aberdeen. The drive wasn’t too monotonous since the scenery was amazing almost the entire way. Erin and I both agreed that at some parts it almost is a little reminiscent of Pennsylvania, at least when passing fields of green and the smaller trees. It sure looks more like home than Tucson – thats for sure!
After proudly showing our new national park pass ( we had to get another one since our old one expired last month!) We drove up to Paradise, where there is a nice visitor center and a big parking lot. Even though we arrived early, the parking lot was already full and we had to park in an overflow parking area. Still, not a bad view for an overflow parking spot!
I had pre-researched a trail called the skyline trail and we decided that was what we were going to hike. Skyline trail is a loop trail that starts at the Paradise visitor center. The first part consists of a steep climb up to a panoramic point. While climbing, Mt Rainier looms above you like a giant! Although we didn’t know it at the time, we actually went snowshoeing on this same exact trail last March. Although, at that point, we were standing on about 8 to 10 ft worth of snow! We had no idea there was a paved path underneath us. Erin managed to recreate some of the photos that we took last March for comparison.
Upon reaching the panoramic point, most of the climbing is done. From the viewpoint you can see Mount St Helens and Mount Adams, two other active volcanoes in the area. because of the wildfires on the eastern side of the mountain range, there was a decent amount of smoke obscuring the view. We actually got very lucky, as within the next week wind patterns changed as fires intensified throughout OR and CA which caused an absolute hellscape of smoke here in Aberdeen and throughout the entire western side of WA. If we were to go to Mt Rainier today, we wouldn’t even be able to see Mt Rainier in front of us, let alone the views in the distance!
Beginning the descent from the viewpoint is a little bit like hiking on the moon, or so I would imagine. The gray rocks and barren landscape seem otherworldly. But, the further down and the closer to the water sources you get, signs of life begin popping up. Check out this moss! Pretty soon we were walking through fields of wildflowers! The fields of wildflowers slowly turned into outcroppings of evergreen trees. The last part of the hike consisted of walking through sparse evergreen forest overlooking valleys filled with pines.
Erin and I both agree that this is one of the top hikes we have ever done. Unfortunately, it was quite crowded which did detract from the experience somewhat. However, I guess that’s to be expected on a weekend. In fact, on our drive out we realized just how smart we were to arrive early. We estimate the line of cars waiting to get into the entrance point was about 4 to 5 mi long. I wouldn’t have wanted to figure out how long that would take to wait through. We only had to wait for about 5 to 10 cars!
Since we finished our hike in late afternoon and we had to drive directly through Olympia on our way home, we decided to stop. It was an unseasonably warm day and we decided to walk around and check out Olympia for a little bit. I wanted to try some premium Pacific oysters. We found an oyster bar and seafood restaurant. Erin even tried one of their oysters and said that it was pretty good. My only other positive experience with oysters has been up in Maine. Anytime I’ve ordered oysters and they weren’t from Maine they have pretty much been a waste of money. However these were totally not a waste of money. They were very good! As compared to the good oysters I had in Maine they were much more meaty and a little less briny.
After dinner we decided to get some ice cream and walk around the dock for a little bit. The rest of the drive was a piece of cake since Olympia is about 1 hour away from where we live. It’s literally one road to get home from Olympia! Unfortunately we live directly on a trucking route. This means it’s very easy and convenient to get home from pretty much anywhere, but that the house shakes from early morning to late afternoon as trucks hauling lumber carry their payload to the mill down at the dock.
I can only imagine what this peninsula must have looked like prior to logging of the area. If it looked anything like the preserved areas such as Olympic national Park then it must have been an absolute gold mine for lumbering companies! I’m glad select areas are protected and that some of the old growth forest has been saved.
Thanks for reading!
Enjoyed your hike with you, great views.
Grandma
OMG! I love these trip photos. Especially since I will be heading up that way soon to visit my son Danny who is stationed up there in Yakima. He is a Lt. in the US Army and is training a unit there for deployment. I can’t wait to see Rainier! And, have some of those amazing Pacific Oysters too. They arent too bad here in SB Patrick. Especially if you order the Taylor Pacifics.
Keep sharing your adventures! Someday you could even make a book out of it for your kiddos!