Hiking in Rainier National Park 🗻

In August 2020, my bf Jason and I made an impromptu side trip to Rainier National Park while visiting Seattle, as part of our very roundabout road-trip back home from Wyoming. We were lucky to grab a last minute campsite at Cougar Rock Campground as a base for exploring the park for a few days.

Our friend Maggie is a National Park Ranger, and she works at different parks every season. We’ve been trying to catch up with her at one of the parks for the last few years, so it was perfect that we could swing through Rainier on our trip. Through Maggie’s ranger connections we were able to get a dog-sitter for the day while we hiked the Skyline Trail.

Photos are shot on Leica M10 and on film with the Fuji Natura S 🎞 (ok a few iphone too).

Mornings are so foggy and dramatic in Rainier.

Rainier likes to sleep in late, hiding in a blanket of clouds…leaving you eagerly awaiting its appearance.

Camping with Gary (and Jason, not pictured) at Cougar Rock Campground.

The perfect weather for a perfect view on Reflection Lake

Hiking the Skyline Trail

I am so thankful that we got to hike this trail, as it turned out to be one of my favorite hikes I’ve ever done… this trail has stunning and dramatically changing views and landscapes with every step! The trail is only about 7 miles, but for some reason it feels a whole lot longer (it’s not quite 2000 feet of elevation gain, but it feels like more). Although not super high altitude, the trail maybe feels tougher because it starts about 5000 feet above sea level and climbs up from there.

We hiked this trail at the end of summer––August 28, 2020… but up on Rainier it felt like spring! All around the trailhead at Paradise the hills were alive with wildflowers and greenery. This was the most Switzerlandy hike I’ve done outside of Switzerland!

We stumbled into this landscape which I recognized from a vintage Rainier National Park puzzle I had done earlier in 2020 during lockdown.

The skyline trail is a loop which we decided to do counter-clockwise. When you reach Panorama Point, you’ve reached the highest point of the Skyline Trail, but it’s just the beginning of the tough part of the trail for mountaineers and those who are summiting Mt. Rainier via the Camp Muir Route. When we reached Panorama Point, we couldn’t resist hiking just a little further to get a higher (and more private) view of the mountain. The view up there gives you a stunning view of the peak, crumbling glaciers, and a waterfall from melting snow and ice. I would have liked to keep hiking higher, but we hadn’t budgeted the time or energy to hoof it any higher up the mountain this time.