Day 176-177 hiking in Mt Rainier NP, Sept 26th-27th 3

Tanguy set the alarm for 0700 which was a tad early for me! But the sun was shining way above us (and the trees) so it was time to see the park on a sunny day. It was Still chilly out, we had our usual breakfast, and got away nice and early from the campground at 0830. The drive through the canyon towards Paradise was beautiful, even more so when we got clear views of the glacial covered volcano peak of Mt Rainier. 

We stopped at Reflection lake  which was mirror calm to take some amazing shots. It was only about 7 degrees out so I was keen to get back in the sun. Once we got to Paradise, I went to hunt around for some food to take on our hike. We walked to the Lodge which had a small cafe, and picked up some wraps etc to take with us. 

We opted for the ‘Skyline Trail’ hike, a 5.5mile loop through the alpine meadows, and above the tree line through the snow to some viewpoints of Nisqually glacier. It was an absolutely beautiful walk, we stopped often to take pictures of the towering giant above us, and wildlife was abundant including the usual squirrels and chipmunks, also fat marmots, birds and even a Mountain goat. 

At the top of the ‘high skyline’ section of the trail, we had an incredible view of the huge glacier carving its way down the valley; we stopped there at the rocky point to have our lunch, just as the first few wisps of clouds came in. Thouroughly enjoying our mountain time, we carried on downhill, crossing far more people on the trail who were only doing the shorter section to ‘Panorama Point’. From up there we could see Mt St Helens, Mt Baker and several other volcanic domes rising above the rest of the Mountains. We stumbled apon one marmot lounging in the sun right on the trail, who was so chill we walked right by him without him running off. His friend was busy marking his territory and building the nest a few metres up from the trail. On the way down we took the 1mile (return) trail to the glacial moraine face, where we sat, watched more marmots and enjoyed the view. Once back at the vistor centre we were sore and ready to go back to camp. A quick inquiry at the visitor centre we found out that Sunrise guest services were closed for the season, so on the ride back down to camp we carried on 20mins to the small town of Packwood to top up food supplies. There we also checked the Internet for our Seattle stop, and an RV park let us use their showers so we were nice and clean again.

The next morning, alarm at 0700 again as today we packed up camp. After breakfast pack up etc we rode to the other side of the mountain, to Sunrise visitor centre. The road was once again really nice, but construction season is in full swing, all over the park including our campground.Once at the top we opted for the ‘Fremont Lookout’ trail (5.6m return).

 This side of the Mountain for hiking was far more exposed, a lot drier and windier. Clear blue skies all day through so we had great views of the peak and glaciers the whole hike up along an old moraine ridge, to an old fire watch tower where we had lunch. We lay in the sun but it was abit too chilly for me. (7,181ft above sea) the hike back I was definitely  starting to feel the sun and wind burn. We forgot sunblock yesterday and now had a burning face.

We were back at the parking lot mid afternoon and since we had no concrete plans for Seattle as far as accommodation went, we decided to find a place with cell coverage and look into our options. We rode north through greenwster and found what we were looking for in Enumclaw. We also picked up some supplies and headed out of town a little to set up camp.

Zoe