It was a partly sunny day in Seattle, reasonably good weather for an April day. The report from Paradise Lodge on Mount Rainier was 25-knot winds, temperature 35F and snowing. Whenever my Washingtonian stubbornness (going ahead with plans regardless of weather) gets me into trouble, Mt. Rainier seems to be involved. Witness the fateful Rampart Ridge trip of last spring.
Photo: Snowshoe tracks lead past Alta Vista toward Glacier Vista. No throngs of tourists today!
So, to Paradise we went. Paradise is one of the few places in Washington where the road is plowed to such a high elevation--5400'--allowing access to some excellent snow playgrounds. There's a kids' sledding area, plenty of safe parking, and restrooms. Everything else commercial, including the lodge, is closed in winter. But the meadows are open to unlimited snowshoeing, skiing, and camping (with permit) as late as May.
The thing to be aware of is that the weather at Paradise is still winter, even though it's spring at sea level. Go prepared for very cold, windy, wet weather, regardless of the conditions outside the U Village Starbucks.
Along the way, the parking lot at Narada Falls was open, but the trail covered in snow. We could see the snowshoe tracks of others who had gone down to the falls, but decided the slow runoff would make the falls less than spectacular. We passed the road to Reflection Lakes (the snowblower had been through, but the road was still closed) and parked at the Paradise Ranger Station, where we donned snowshoes in a driving snowstorm.
The wind was actually less strong away from the lodge, and the sun tried repeatedly to come out, as we skied toward Alta Vista. We had no particular destination in mind--just roaming as we pleased in the snowy meadows where summer visitors will be warned not to leave the paved trails. Broken clouds allowed the sun to shine through occasionally on the Tatoosh Range.
We met a lone backcountry skier who had made the loop across Panorama Point. He said the conditions up there (he pointed, but it was far from visible) were total white-out, that he had to navigate his way off the point quickly to get out of the 30-knot constant winds.
After we had done some tromping about, we stopped just north of Alta Vista, between there and Glacier Vista. An opening in the clouds rendered what we hoped to see from this excellent vantage point: the peak of Mt. Rainier emerged, if only briefly, from the stormy sky. As we snapped photos of the dramatic sun-and-shadow scene before us, the sky to the south darkened. We decided to head back to the car, before the squall reached us. That turned out to be a good idea. Back at the parking lot, we were met by horizontal snowfall, strong winds and below 20F temperatures. El Nino was taking a nap.
Note: This is backcountry wilderness travel. Any trail can become very dangerous in winter conditions. You are responsible for informing yourself of the hazards and taking the necessary precautions. Please read Terms of Use.