Mount Rainier National Park- Longmire/Paradise (June 2013)

I made my first trip to Mt. Rainier National Park on my own, pretty early in June. It's about a two hour drive from Seattle to get to the Paradise entrance to the park, but then about another hour to the top (to Paradise visitors center.)

Some pictures from the drive there..

 

 

First view of her when you enter the park.

 

 I was literally twitching to get over there, and it turns out it was a little early to get up to Paradise like I wanted (the top of this section of the park)- so I did some hiking in Longmire instead, which wasn't as high up and therefore not covered in snow. I'm glad it worked out this way though, because during my hike, I saw very few people, and was simply astounded by the beauty of the forest I was hiking through.

Imagine walking in this huge shady forest, dwarfed by amazing trees, hearing nothing by nature, seeing an occasional deer, and smelling the pine trees.

 

At the advice of a park ranger (from New Port Richey, Florida!!) I decided to hike Rampart Ridge trail, which was about 5 miles round trip and of medium difficulty.

 

I had been hiking for about an hour and a half through nothing but forest, then I came to the first opening and could see some of the Cascades...

 

 

 

About 30-40 minutes further, I finally got to the viewpoint of the trail, where I sat and had a wonderful lunch. After about 2.5-3 hours of hiking up hill, I made it!!

 

 

This was my first chipmunk sighting in Washington, and I was really excited. Probably too excited!

On the hike down, I ran into some snowy obstacles, but luckily they weren't too bad!

The park ranger had mentioned another hike that was only a couple of miles.. and had two waterfall views, so I decided to adventure there next. 

 

 

 

When I was exhausted, I got in the car to make the drive further up to Paradise.. making some stops along the way....

 

 

 

 

Almost to the top now...

 

The parking lot had about a 10 foot high wall of snow.. definitely not ready for hiking yet!

 

 

 

And as I was leaving.... I saw this river running along the snowy bank... and once I got over my mind being blown since it was June, I simply enjoyed its beauty.

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing day, spent in solitude, pushing my physical limits, enjoying the beauty of nature, and feeling amazingly lucky to be in such a place.