A second post from our road trip into Washington and Oregon, with a focus on our last couple of days in Mount Rainier National Park. We did a big hike on the Skyline Loop to see the wildflowers and the view, and I did a big ride out of the park as we headed inland towards the Gorge for our second stop.

Wednesday morning we had planned to do our favourite hike in the park - the Skyline Loop. It’s a pretty big one - about 6.5 miles and 1,700 feet of elevation gain. This time of year, in addition to the amazing views, the wildflowers are spectacular. The hike starts at the lodge at Paradise and loops up and through some meadows, as you climb steadily. We do the hike in the reverse direction of what the guide books suggest, and we think its the better approach. The climbing is longer and more gradual; you get better views of the mountain as you climb; and the way down is steeper and faster.

We got off to a pretty early start, as we wanted to be through the climb before it got too busy, and to leave us the afternoon free. On the way up, we made a stop at Christine Falls to take some pictures. With the stone bridge, it’s one of the prettiest spots in the park.

Up at the top of the mountain it was a beautiful day!

We were well provisioned for the day, and it was a beautiful one. The sun was bright, but it wasn’t too hot. As we started out up the trail, we seemed to be headed away from most of the crowds.

We did have a couple of photographers coming down the mountain - they had been up early while it was still dark to catch the sunrise, and were calling it a day already. I remember when I used to do things like that…

The first part of the hike is actually on a paved trail - they get a lot of visitors to the park, and this maintains the heavily used lower area. There are a couple of nice spots in this part of the hike, and it’s great to get some early nice shots in.

I’m not sure if the waterfall has a name, but it certainly looks nice framed against Mount Rainier.

This beautiful view is right near the lodge - 5 minutes walk max.

As we got off onto the proper trails, we passed through an area where we had seen many marmots on previous trips. This time was no exception, as we saw our first few, as well as a pika that was making quite the racket!

Of course, one of the main reasons to do the hike was for the wildflowers, and our timing was ideal. There were huge meadows just full of different flowers. The scent was overwhelming at times, and there were bees and butterflies everywhere. It was beautiful.

Photos don’t really do it justice. It’s just so hard to capture the magnitude of the wildflowers.

Here’s a whole collection of the different wildflowers we saw over the course of the day.

As we got higher, the views got even better. On the recommendation of one of the photographers we passed on the way down, we took a side trail out to some of the most amazing wildflower meadows we saw the whole trip. So worth the extra couple of miles we added on to the hike.

A trail through the meadows, heading back to the mountain.

The sheer variety and quantities are amazing!

We continued up, and the terrain opened up a bit. There were marmots everywhere, and most of them were not at all fussed by people being around. I had one basically walk over the tops of my shoes as he decided he needed to cross the trail.

As we crossed through one of the higher meadows, we stopped and had a little snack. The climbing was getting a little harder, and we were heading into the more exposed part of the hike. A lot less flowers, a lot more marmots!

One of the many little creeks we crossed.

Great views back down towards Paradise.

The views in all directions were amazing.

The glaciers are very exposed, and seemed much smaller than just a couple of years earlier.

A bit of a closer view.

The source of the Nisqually River.

Glacier close-up

Justine at the edge of the glacier… or so it looks!

Another view of the waterfall coming off the Nisqually Glacier, feeding the river of the same name.

One last view of the mountain and wildflowers.

we had brought Justine’s bike up with us when we drove up that morning. She was jealous of the ride down I had the previous day, and wanted to do it (without doing the climbing - who can blame her?). So after we had rested a bit, she got geared up and rode back to the campsite. She beat me down with ease!

The GPS trail of our hike of the Skyline Loop trail.

All set for a nice fire on our last night.

After the ride, we basically hung out at the campsite for the rest of the afternoon. There might have been a nap in the hammock, some reading and some card games. It was pretty nice and relaxing after the active day.

We headed out of the park for a bit of an early dinner, to this little restaurant that we’d been to before. It’s a cool spot, and the food is pretty good. As I had a bigger ride to get in, I wanted to load up on carbs.

We were trying to get back to the campsite for about 8:00, as there was a Ranger program in the amphitheater at 8:00 on the wildlife in the park. We made it back and sat through the show, which sadly wasn’t very good. Maybe the odd interesting tidbit, but overall a bit sad. Once it got dark, we had a great fire, had some wine and really enjoyed our last night in the park.

Thursday we had to drive east, to the Gorge Amphitheater for the Mumford and Sons concert on Friday night. The camping package was for two nights, and while we were really looking forward to the concert, two nights of camping in a field with way too many people all packed in a round you wasn’t going to be a highlight of the trip. And it was going to be close to 40C during the day.

I still needed to get a longish ride in, so I decided to ride back up Mount Rainier, but this time decided to go over it! Justine and I picked a spot at the other end, that was roughly the right distance to meet, and off I went after I helped pack up most of the campsite.

The ride up and over Mount Rainier. It was just shy of 60 km and 900m of elevation gain. Lots of downhill once you got over the top - lots of fun!

And the elevation profile.

After the ride, I had to wait for Justine for a little bit. After getting changed and sorting out the bike, we were back on the road. We had a couple of hours of driving to get to the venue. That part went fine - and after a bit of a logistics mix up at the campground (we should have stopped for provisions first) we were back, organized and settled in for a couple of days at the Gorge.