Northwest Pt. 3 (Mt. Rainier) — JakeRost Photography

After going back and forth whether to visit Mr. Rainier or Olympic National Park, we decided on heading to the mountain. Mt. Rainier is about a 2.5 hour trip from Seattle to Paradise. However, it will take you a lot longer as there is so much to see on your way over and up the mountain to Paradise. There are a few other routes you can take to Mt. Rainier, but we decided to enter in on the Southwest Side of the park. After passing through Ashford (your last stop for gas and cell phone reception), we entered the park for $20. Once we were in the car there were multiple places to park, hike, look, breathe in that fresh air and of course, take pictures. It seemed to me that every which way I looked there was something that was picture worthy. After venturing through the park almost the entire day stopping at multiple places before and after Paradise Inn, we left the park at the Southeast Entrance with little daylight to spare. We then stayed over night in Packwood, WA, and headed to Portland the following day, which is a short 2 hour drive.

Here are my Do's and Don'ts of Mt. Rainier National Park:

Do's

1. Leave as early as possible. We left shortly after 8 from Seattle, and felt like we could of spent a lot more time in the park as there is so much to see.

2. Get a good Map of the Park; At the entrance a park ranger has a very detailed map of places to stop and see, before just driving up to Paradise, stop and figure out where and what you want to see.

3. HIKE!!! So there are many things to stop and pull over and see on your way up the mountain, but the best things I saw were when we were walking on the trails. Prior to going to Mt. Rainier I researched underrated spots in Mt. Rainier, and discovered Bench and Snow Lake. It is about a 2.6 mile round-trip hike. The hike is somewhat exhausting as you are constantly going up. Once we reached the lakes, which are about .7 miles apart, the hike was well worth it. These lakes are incredible and live up to their reputation on the internet. There are little trails everywhere at each stop, so keep a look out as they generally lead to another sight to see.

Don'ts

1. Don't eat at the hotels inside the park: As stated before once you pass Ashford, you have no where to get gas or have cell phone reception. In the park there are two main Hotels, Paradise Inn and National Park Inn. These places also have restaurants, with mediocre food that is kind of pricey. We at at National Park Inn, which was not bad, but after thinking about it, I would have loved to pack a lunch and eat it looking at a waterfall or sitting somewhere looking at the peak of Mt. Rainier.

2. Don't stay in the Park; Unless you have a crazy amount of money to spend and book the hotel crazy early, your chance staying in the park is slim, if you plan to camp, we were told that you have to book a site almost a year in advance. There are many places to stay outside the park, but if you have plans to make your way down to Mt St. Helen or Portland after your visit to Mt. Rainier, I highly suggest Packwood Lodge. It was $119.00 a night and was amazing. Chris the hotel manager was awesome. He knew what he was doing and was super accommodating to anyone that was staying at the hotel. I could not praise this place any more. It is only about 10 min outside the park. The town of Packwood is about 3 miles down the road and offers slim pickings for food, but Chris suggest the Blue Spruce or a pizza place called Cruiser's Pizza which was pretty tasty.

3. Don't forget your hiking shoes; Unless you plan to just drive from place to place (which is lame), you most likely plan to do a little walking. I cannot stress how much hiking shoes helped. We walked through puddles, along logs, up hills, in mud, and other terrain, and the hiking shoes made it very easy. If you are there when it is raining it will be horrible to hike without hiking shoes/boots. You don't want to be falling down that mountain now, do you?

Here are some pictures from our tower through Mt. Rainier National Park (film to soon follow).