Date Visited: September 6th-10th 2020
Did you know Mount Rainier is an active volcano? Or that with 25 major glaciers on it, Mount Rainier is the most glaciated mountain in the mainland US? How about the fact that Mount Rainier has thousand year old trees growing on it? And did you know that when a piece of a glacier breaks off and comes crashing down, it makes a sound that, just for a moment, can panic a 40 year old man who (having just learned it’s an active volcano) thinks it might be the volcano erupting? Those are all facts we learned at our first stop along the West coast, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state.
The Campground
For our visit to Mount Rainier, Kristy lined us up with a great campground between the small cities of Packwood and Randle just south of the park. We arrived on the Sunday of Labor day weekend, and the place was packed. This campground, Cascade Peaks, was easily the largest one we have ever stayed at, but it was also quite rustic, with spots tucked all around in the woods. That first night we were a little worried it was going to be too busy for our taste, but it cleared out quickly the next day, and we practically had the place to ourselves. The highlight was absolutely the zip line, which Owen took full advantage of.
Grove of the Patriarchs
I made a small error in suggesting that we do a short hike on Sunday evening after we arrived. The Grove of the Patriarchs trail is a short, kid friendly hike featuring a suspension bridge and an opportunity to walk through a forest of giant, thousand year old trees. Now don’t get me wrong, the hike was awesome, and we highly recommend it, but it turned out it was super busy on the Sunday evening of Labor Day weekend. Not only was it busy, but it was full of touristy folks who were not great about respecting the park and staying on the trail. We did mask up and power through it though, and I’m glad we didn’t miss this feature.
TIP: Don’t miss the Grove of the Patriarchs trail, but time it for an off-peak visit. Weekdays in the early morning or evening are best.
Shadow Lake
Before heading to Shadow Lake, we first took a detour to the Emmons Vista Overlook in the Sunrise area of the park This was a short walk to this overlook, which offers a grand view of the Emmons Glacier.
While we were taking in the expansive vista, a section of the glacier calved off. I heard it, but didn’t see it, and the sound it made as it crashed to the rock and river below briefly panicked my brain into thinking that Mount Rainier had just come alive and was erupting. Here are the thoughts I had as that happened:
Oh Sh!t! Is it erupting?!?
I guess if it is, this is an acceptable way for us to go out. It’s been a really good run.
Oh wait, that was just ice falling into the canyon, and now I feel foolish, but happy that we will live :)
After that fun experience we went on to tackle the Shadow Lakes trail, which at 2.6 miles is a little longer than we usually attempt with Owen. It has a starting elevation of around 6,000 feet, so it gave us a bit of a workout, but we successfully made it up to the Lake where we enjoyed a satisfying lunch in front of a crystal clear, snow-melt fed mountain lake. We saw a few fish in the lake, along with some turtles and frogs. On our way back, I was giving Owen an assist by carrying him on my shoulders when we were startled by a deer bounding across our path not more than 10 feet in front of us. By the time we realized what had happened he was already gone. Owen insisted that we make a special trip back to the ranger station just to tell them about that experience.
Nisqually Vista
The Nisqually Vista trail in the Paradise area was one of my favorites at Mount Rainier. It’s an easy 1.1 mile loop hike along a paved path, and it offers stunning views of Mount Rainier’s peak along with the Nisqually glacier. We did this trail in the evening (5pm-ish) and we encountered maybe two or three other hikers along on the whole trail. Looking out at the glaciated peak it was difficult to get a sense of scale. We could see where the Nisqually river emerged from under the glacier and flowed through the ice carved canyon, but it seemed as though the river could have been five feet across, or fifty feet across. It was an incredible vantage point.
Mount Rainier was a great surprise for us all. We knew it would be an excellent park, but we were not fully prepared for the scale and beauty of it. Below is a short time lapse video of the drive up to the Paradise area of the park.