Mount Rainier
National Park
Standing like a sentinel over Western Washington, Mount Rainier punctuates the Seattle skyline. Established in 1889, Mount Rainier National Park was the fifth Park in the National Park System. At 14,411’, Mt. Rainier is the highest point in the Cascade Range. Glaciers, snowfields, and wilderness dominate the Park. Annually, 10,000 climbers attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier; roughly half make it.
We won’t summit Mount Rainier on the Park-to-Park Tour, but we will explore the surrounding area, including Comet Falls, the Skyline Loop hike, Paradise, and Sunrise. A fitting and beautiful end to leg one of the tour.
Read our blog on Mount Rainier
Itinerary
We are presenting our itinerary as we lived it. Not the plan, but rather what we were actually able to accomplish. Naturally there are some missed goals and some serendipitous surprises. We always rolled with the punches and made the best out of our time in the national parks. Below we have included some notes that explain how the itinerary changed from what we had in mind.
It’s important to know that these plans were made to suit the abilities and interests of two young girls aged 9 and 11. We feel confident that any family on their “Every Kid Outdoors Summer” (4th grade) could handle this itinerary. For hikes, we have listed the distance, elevation gain, and time that we tracked, which may differ from published (or actual) measurements.
Day 1
Morning
Depart Olympic National Park
Afternoon
Longmire
Trail of Shadows
Evening
Overnight at Cougar Rock Campground
Day 2
Morning
Paradise Visitor Center
Box Canyon
Ohanapecoch Visitor Center
Hike: Grove of Patriarchs & Silver Falls (3.7 miles, 400 feet, 2 hours)
Afternoon
Sunrise
Sunrise Visitor Center
Evening
Overnight at Cougar Rock Camground
Day 3
Morning & Afternoon
Paradise
Hike: Skyline / Golden Gate Trails (5.4 miles, 1,700 feet, 4.5 hours)
Evening
Overnight in Paradise Inn
Day 4
Depart Mount Rainier National Park
Notes
We arrived at Mount Rainier National Park later than planned. So, we skipped a hike to Comet Falls on day one. Day two was meant to be a hike up mountain from Paradise, but the weather was not cooperative. Rangers indicated that the following day might be better. So, we headed down to Ohanapecosh and then around to Sunrise on the cloudy day. We added Silver Falls to our Grove of Patriarchs hike, and ended up skipping a short hike at Sunrise, for time.
When we woke up on day three, the sky was clear and the mountain was out. We’d made the right call, and thoroughly enjoyed our time at Mount Rainier, even with a little flip-flopping of the schedule.
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