I have lived in Washington since I was a teenager but finally at 50 years old I finally spent some time hiking in Mt Rainier National Park. My daughter and I left our house at 5:30 am for the 2.5 hour drive to Sunrise. Due to Covid the Visitor Center was closed but the store and snack area was open. Because we were going on a Wednesday we knew parking would be better than on a weekend and there were plenty of spaces at 8am when we pulled into the lot. We really didn’t have a plan of the hikes we wanted to do but had decided to keep it simple and not do much in the way of elevation gain so we opted to not take our hiking poles. We had looked up a description of the trails in the area and started out on the Sunrise Nature Trail taking the Silver Forest Trail (2 miles. 150′ elevation gain) This trail leads to spectacular views at the Emmons Vista Overlook and continues through an old burn area that is starting to see beautiful meadows, wildflowers, and new growth.
We continued on the nature trail to Shadow Lake which was so incredibly lovely and peaceful (we could see why it says no swimming or it would have been packed with people). We walked around the lake to see the reflection of the mountain in this serene location.
We continued on our way stopping to chat with fellow hikers along the way. One of the people we met mentioned that he had seen mountain goats and we were so excited to hear this that we asked where to see if we could try and get there. So we started on our way to Frozen Lake, now is where it pays to remember that we have decided to leave our hiking poles in the car. We started heading up the trail and passed a few people along the way when we came to a section of snow, uphill slushy and slippery snow. Now if we had been smart enough to bring our poles this would have been easy but as we stood looking at it knowing that there might be goats if we could get up it, we looked at each other and decided that the only thing we could do was crab walk up it using our fingers to dig into the snow…keep in mind that we are in shorts and tank tops but thankfully we always wear our hiking boots. We were extremely grateful that the couple we passed along the way was pretty slow so they did not get to witness this adventure and we are also very happy there are no pictures to show you. But, we made it to the top and promised to always bring our hiking poles from now on. We arrived at Frozen Lake and chatted with a Ranger about where the goats were…if only we had just turned around and looked closer at the trail below us. The Ranger said that people had seen them on the Burroughs so we decided to go to 1st Burroughs and cross our fingers. As we were close to the top we looked down and saw a herd of about 50 goats right where we just were so we decided to trek back down and see if we could get closer. Sadly we got there about 2 minutes too late but it was still beautiful to see the entire herd.
We headed back on the Sunrise Rim Trail to finish up our 7.5 miles of hikes with 1400′ in elevation gain. With a quick stop to grab some lunch in the store, we decided to head to Paradise and do a bit more hiking there and search for waterfalls.
Upon arriving at Paradise and getting ready to start our hike, I turned to my daughter and said do you think we should bring our poles…I said this in all seriousness after having the pole conversation only a few hours before. Needless to say she laughed at me and said “MOM” in that tone of are you totally insane. We brought them this time and we definitely ended up needing them.
As we stood looking at the trail map to see what direction we wanted to head there was a ranger there so we asked him about doing the entire Skyline Trail counterclockwise. He mentioned that there was still a bit of snow from Golden Gate Trail and beyond. So we decided to do the loop until we reached Golden Gate and head back down to the parking lot from there. Myrtle Falls is an easy 1/4 mile walk from the trail entrance. We took a picture/video and quickly moved on because this is really more of a spot for people who did not come to hike but who want a pretty waterfall picture.
We continued on the Skyline trail and enjoyed smaller waterfalls and chatted with a few people along the way. We found out that even though we were told no snow on this section…there was indeed still plenty of snow that we needed to be prepared for so we were very glad to have our poles. We approached the stunning Sluiskin Falls and Paradise Glacier Trail and made our way over multiple snowfields to reach Golden Gate Trail.
The sad part about this adventure was that we did not see a single marmot. We looked all over but they aparently did not like us enough to make an appearance. All this means is we need to go back! After 4.5 miles on Paradise making our total for the day 12 miles of hiking with 2500′ in elevation gains…we headed to the car, exhusted but happy. We cannot wait to visit again and see even more waterfalls, wildflowers, goats, chipmunks and hopefully marmots
Happy Travels!
wow unbeleivably beautiful.. thanks for sharing your adventure totally feel there
I miss the PNW .. you both look amazing