explore mount rainier

spend a day seeing the highlights of mount rainier national park

we took a guided day trip from seattle to mount rainier national park. it was such a funfilled and jam packed day i thought the day deserved a separate post! check out my post on how to spend a weekend in seattle here.

we got picked up by northwest tours in the international district of downtown seattle at the crack of dawn! there is a very strong asian district as is evident by the decor in the area as well as the street signs being in multiple languages.

the drive is a little less than two hours to the entrance to the park. our driver john was great and kept us entertained with legends and facts of the area as we made our way south. we also had a stop to get some groceries if needed for a picnic lunch in the park. 

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old growth forest

our first stop was the mount rainier national park entrance sign for some pictures. then a few more minutes drive and we stopped for a walk through an old growth forest. these trees are hundreds of years old and huge! john talked to us about these old trees as we got to walk around and admire mother nature. 

christine falls

our first real hike was at christine falls. this was still a very easy hike for our whole group, but had a great view to make it worth it! the water was so clear and blue. as john explained, some of the water in the park is a little milky because it comes from glacier “flour”, while runoff is extremely clear. 

paradise

the story goes that when the longmires settled in the park, mrs longmire named paradise as such due to it’s beautiful view of mount rainier and trails in that area. there is a neat old lodge (paradise inn) here as well as a large visitor center and a beautiful view with a lot of trails to explore. they are currently doing construction on the buildings, but you can still walk around and of course hike the trails. 

john dropped us off and we had 2 hours to explore. we (and by we i mean i) decided on a hike john had suggested to be able to see where the glacier is melting on mount rainier which ended up being the hardest hike of the day, but also very beautiful. 

i was worried nick wasn’t going to make it, but we got the best view of the mountain we had in the park. unfortunately the clouds just would not clear for us to get that picture perfect shot of the mountain. 

narada falls

our last hike for the day was narada falls. again an easy hike with a great falls that even had a rainbow in it! 

other attractions

we made a few other stops and scenic drives during our day in the park. longmire museum talks about the early settlers in the park with some cool old pictures. leaving paradise we drove through stevens canyon, creek, ridge, etc. there are a lot of items in the park named for hurricane stevens who is credited with van trump as the first to summit mount rainier. we stopped at reflections lake, but the clouds wouldn’t leave to give us a view of the mountain. 

on our drive back we stopped at wapati woolies where we got to buy some huckleberry ice cream (or other flavors). john had gotten us some huckleberry taffy when he picked us up from paradise and i couldn’t resist getting some more of this flavor!

when we got back to seattle we were dropped back off where we were picked up. because we were on vacation we decided we needed some shaved ice since we were in the international district. if you haven’t had this asian treat before it is shaved ice that has a flavor like ice cream. it comes in lots of different flavors with toppings and anything your heart could desire. i recommend trying it if there is a spot to get some near you!

this is my first time doing a guided tour like this one and i have to say i enjoyed it. our tour guide was great, it was a relatively small group of about 20 people and everyone was normal. it saved us from having to do the driving to, from, and in the park. it was also a great way to see the highlights of the park in one day. while normally i might have planned more time and longer hikes we were able to fit a lot in one day and having a guide took any stress of planning off my shoulders which was nice. 

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