Mt. Rainier, February 2025
We spent a few nights in Mt. Rainier National Park with a hiking group. We did some snowshoeing and even got lucky on one day to get a great view of Mt. Rainier.
Wed, 5-Feb
Even though this was going to be a relatively short trip, we still had the car pretty full since we were taking snowshoeing gear. We also took one of our coolers so we could keep food in our room, since the inn said that was needed, probably due to rodents.
The roads were pretty good until we actually got to the park entrance. The person at the gate mentioned that there were already some people who had slid on the rood. We thanked him for the heads up and proceeded to Longmire, where everyone would be meeting.
We wouldn't be able to check into he inn at Longmire until later in the day, so we all headed out to a hike. It seemed to be a pretty even split between snowshoes and microspikes; Melody and I opted for snowshoes.
We started on the Wonderland Trail, working our way up in elevation. We then came to a wide valley with the Nisqually River running in the middle. We weren't sure what condition the bridge would be in, and were pleased to see that it was in good shape. After crossing, we started climbing back up and went up to Carter Falls. A lot of the falls were frozen, but we still got a good look.
We worked our way back to the inn and checked in. It was a relatively large group, and with several groups checking in, the process was pretty slow. For some reason, several people took quite a while to check in, but I guess we were a straightforward case since it only took us a few minutes. We put our stuff in the room, cleaned up, then went to the lounge to hang out with others for a while.
We had dinner at the restaurant where there and our group occupied several tables of four and a few which seated six. People then went back to the lounge to socialize until it was time to get some sleep.
Thu, 6-Feb
We arrived at the restaurant with a few other people just before it opened for breakfast. The hostess knew how many of us were staying at the inn and warned us that it would take a while to get people seated and that there was only one cook. Fortunately, we weren't especially in a rush.
After breakfast, we got ready to hike up to Rampart Ridge. Since the snow wasn't expected to be very deep, we all used microspikes. The sky was mostly clear and visibility was quite good.
It was quite a hill to get to the ridge, but we all made it. A few people decided to turn around and head back instead of finishing the loop, but the rest of us continued on. Before long, we were treated to a great view of Mt. Rainier.
A bit further a long, we stopped for lunch. Several of us had ordered sack lunches from the inn. There were several gray jays waiting to see if we happened to drop any food.
In the afternoon, people mostly did their own thing. Several of us went to the museum to check it out. That happened to be the only place that had wifi in the area, and there was only a bit of cell reception from one carrier (not ours). Understandably, the museum was a popular place to stand outside for a bit to check email, etc., throughout the day.
People once again hung out around the lounge both before and after dinner. It's quite a sociable group, and most of the people were still chatting away after we called it a night.
Fri, 7-Feb
The road to Paradise is only open on the weekends, so we planned to snowshoe about halfway between Longmire and Paradise. We could see the gate from the inn, so we checked out and loaded our cars, then waited until the road was open before heading back out to our cars.
We parked at the lot for Narada Falls and waited for everyone to show up. The snow was quite a bit deeper than at Longmire; the building with the heated restrooms was buried, not eh most part. A few of us started out before the rest of the group, and it was a steep first few steps to get to the trail. We wove through the trees until we got to a road and waited for the rest of the group.
Once the group leader made it up, he he headed out along the road, breaking the trail. I ended up just behind him, so I ended up flattening out the part of the trail between his steps. It was quite a bit of work, made a bit easier with the lack of a steep climb.
We made it out to reflection lake, which was snowed over, so it wasn't reflecting anyway. There was also quite a bit of fog, so we couldn't see Mt. Rainier anyway. We ate our lunches and chatted for a while, then started heading back to the cars, where people said goodbye and headed home.
