August 9, 2016, Walking the Paradise Hiking Trails at Mt. Rainier
Another rainy day at Mt. Rainier but that didn't stop us from having a fun time hiking some of the trails. We have been staying at
Whittaker's Motel and Historic Bunkhouse. This is like grown zero for Mt. Rainier hikers. The motel was founded by Lou Whittaker the brother of the famous
Jim Whittaker who was the first American to climb Mt. Everest and one of the founders and builders or REI sporting equipment. Lou himself is famous for leading thousands of people up Mt Rainier. There are hikers all over the place all dressed in their cool hiking cloths.
We had no trouble getting to the Paradise area today, it is mid-week and rainy, so plenty of parking. Paradise is the second major area and where the main visitors lodge for Mt. Rainier National Park is located. The Paradise Inn is also located here. Lots of trails start here going off in many directions with some heading to the meadows and then to the glaciers. All kinds of hiking groups meet here and then start out. We went on two of the easy trails, Skyline Trail to Myrtle Falls and Nisqually Vista Trail.
Click to see maps and info on all the Rainier trails. Our weather conditions were very misty, sometime a little rainy and low visibility but it was still beautiful. We didn't see any peaks but did see lots of wild flowers in meadows and amazing trees. After Paradise we headed up to Louise Lake and then back down to Narada Falls. All and all a beautiful day. The mist around the trees is really pretty neat.
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| Entrance to Paradise |
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| Myrtle Falls along the Skyline Trail |
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| Bruce and Louise walking the Skyline Trail |
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| Along the trail |
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| Mist on the Nisqually Vista Trail, it was very beautiful |
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| I hiked down to the viewing area for the Narada Falls |
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