Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier

Just got back from 3 days at Mt. Rainier National park. We had a great time and the weather cooperated by being sunny and warm. We took our trailer and camped at Cougar Rock campground. The campground was not crowded, quiet and rustic. There were a wide variety of campers there from families, college kids and a fair amount of foreign tourists. Mostly tent campers with some RV's. The campgrounds don't have hook-ups for RV's and have some fairly tight length restrictions so it keeps the bigger ones out. We stayed 3 nights just running off our batteries and got along fine. 

Skyline Trail

This quote is in the stairs that start the trail off. 

This is Diane getting ready to start our hike.

We went to see the mountain and do some hiking. The hike we chose first was the Skyline Trail. At the ranger station they said there were patches of snow on the trail. This was a bit of an understatement as the upper part had lots of snow. 

This trail climbs 1700 feet from the lodge at Paradise to the Panoramic Point lookout. It's steep but the view from the top is spectacular. We could see Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens to the south. This is Mt. Adams to the southeast.

To the north is Mt. Rainier and you can see several glaciers.

There is also a view of the Nisqually River as it cuts it's way down the valley. 

Mt. Hood off in the distance

View looking down towards Paradise.

This was a 5 mile hike and took about 3.5 hours with stops for rest and photos. A great way to start our visit to Mt. Rainier.