As part of the Washington National Park trifecta, we headed to Mount Rainier next.
After spending far too much time trying to figure out the best trail to hike, we got up to the visitor center lot at the paradise corridor side and everything was so covered in snow that we just hiked up the path behind everyone else - no idea which one it was except it was right next to the building. We had amazing weather. It was 70 degrees and completely sunny. We actually got hot, despite all the snow everywhere. Jordan did a fair amount of hiking on her own, but we had to carry her in parts because of difficult footing. We discovered how amazing real microspikes are compared with the smaller nubby ones. Those plus hiking poles were key. We didn't go super far, but had a great time. We stopped with a nice view of Mount Rainier.
The drive up and down was amazing in itself. We also went to Narada Falls and did the short hike down to it, as well as a drive-by at Reflection Lake. The lake was almost entirely frozen over so we didn't stop there this time. It would be great later in the year though.
There was a nice local playground in the town near the campground, Mounthaven Resort. Jordan experimented with static on the slide.
Just a warning to anyone who goes, they now require permits at this entrance to the park. We heard well in advance so had ours, but could have easily missed that and been stuck in the massive line. The line got so long when we were leaving that it went all the way to our campground.
Next we went on to visit Anjuli's old college friend near Seattle and then up to North Cascades...
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