Sledding in July

We wanted to do some hiking while we were here so we decided that today we'd go to Mt. Rainier and do something there. Even though my friend Greg has been living in Seattle since last September, he hasn't made it to Rainier yet so he was happy to come with us. After meeting us at our hotel at about 7:30 AM, we decided that we'd go to the most popular part of Rainier and do the hike that is probably the most recommended. That meant doing the Skyline Trail Loop at Paradise and it certainly did not disappoint!

It was a two hour drive up and when we left it was cloudy, although the forecast said it'd clear up during the day. As we arrived at the Paradise Visitor Center, it was busy but at least there were parking spaces. While it was still pretty cloudy - and thus you couldn't see any mountains - the sun was starting to show through at times so we were hopeful that it would clear soon. We stopped at the gift shop, got Jess her stamp and bought a few drinks before moving our car to a different lot (since we'd be there for hours) and heading out on the hike. We spoke to a ranger beforehand and she warned that there was still snow in parts but she said the entire 5.5-mile loop was passable if a bit challenging.

The beginning of the hike was paved but it was pretty steep. We knew we'd gain about 1700 feet in elevation but at least a good chunk of that was at the beginning. After we got off the paved part, we were basically in the clouds so visibility wasn't great. We could see short distances which meant snow, wildflowers and marmots galore. We hadn't seen marmots in person during our other trips and this time they were right by the trails and didn't seem concerned that people were right next to them. We also saw a lot of fat chipmunks too.

The trail itself was pretty steep and was tough for Jess at times because the stretches between rocks and steps were sometimes pretty wide and her legs are short. It was very rocky and uneven and steep at almost all points during the first half of the hike. There were a few less rocky parts but that meant it was either kind of sandy or there was snow. Yep, it turned out that even in July, large stretches of the trail were completely covered by snow. Thankfully there were flags and you could follow the footsteps to see which way to go but it was very easy to get a little off course.

We climbed up about 1400 feet to the major veiwpoint of Panoramic Point but unfortunately it was still cloudy so we couldn't see anything in front of us. Behind us was the peak of Rainier, and after stopping for a few minutes to eat lunch, the sky cleared slightly and Rainier was briefly visible. It was pretty amazing although it didn't look as big I expected but that was mostly because we were halfway up and there were still clouds to the side of it.

The clouds came and went rapidly so we left and tried to get up above the clouds and hope for better views. After a short distance, we got to a point where the mountain was completely visible where again, it was only for a short time but we sat there for a while and got to see it come in and out of view a few times. When it was visible, you could definitely see the glaciers up top and the blue hues looked amazing. I did manage to drop our camera and of course it fell down about 10 feet, bouncing off rocks on the way down. It didn't work at first when I got it back but thankfully Greg had this happen to him before and it just required some adjustment to the lens. It seems like it still worked (after all, that's where most of these pictures came from) so we continued on.

After hiking up a couple hundred feet to the high point of the trail, we walked along a giant mound of snow. I think it was a glacier but can't be sure. We saw a huge mountain goat - which I first thought was another snow mound - just sitting there along with people practicing and preparing along the snow below the trail for what I assume was a summit attempt. At this point, the ranger had said there were areas of more snow so we expected that somewhat but there was definitely more than we bargained for. While we thought the uphill parts were tough, it was a lot harder climbing down the snowy steep parts.

Lucky for us, there were a couple people that decided they would use their jackets or a garbage bag to sled down. They may have gotten a little wet doing it but considering you're likely to fall anyway, it seemed like a good idea. The guy offered us an extra garbage bag and we took it. It turns out sledding on that works and is a lot faster and easier to get the down the hills! We took turns sledding at various points and while you didn't have a lot of control, it definitely worked (and was a lot of fun). Here's a video of Greg on one his slides:


(And yes, I'm an idiot for not shooting it landscape.)

We did have to cross a couple of streams too. It wasn't like they were moving that quickly or were deep but you definitely could get your feet completely soaked like I did. There was no clear path through it so you had to guess at which rocks wouldn't move and would stay near the water line. It wasn't easy to stay dry but we all made it with no one falling into the water.

The trail down wasn't that bad and we ended up getting more great views once we got below the clouds. We also saw more marmots sunning themselves on the rocks and the snow. When we were at about mile 6 of the hike (somehow we ended up doing nearly 7 miles so we must have meandered around a lot in addition to the hike from the parking lot to the trailhead), we had to go back up a steep area to get back to the visitor center. We also saw a group of people carrying out a gurney with something tied up in a bag. We think it was a training session but they didn't say that so we don't know if they were recovering a body (though I later checked the news and didn't see anything about it).

When we got close to the trail's end, we saw a nice waterfall and there were a few deer grazing by the path. We were all pretty tired - it ended up being an 11-hour day in total, which was longer than we had planned on - so when we got back to the hotel, we parted ways with Greg and took it easy the rest of the night. It also turned out that despite being below or in the clouds much of the day, we were out long enough that I got badly sunburned so that wasn't terribly comfortable once it really set in.

As they say on Rainier, "You've reached the summit when you're about halfway up." Note: No one says this.