Off Topic: Holiday Weekend Park Diplomacy on the Mountainside

Standing in line for more than ten minutes at a large trailhead restroom, it occurred to me that this was the first time I’d actually been in a national park on a busy summer holiday weekend.

Ending up at Mount Rainier in Washington on Labor Day weekend was kind of an accident. Campsites had been available the prior week in the North Cascades and the following week in Olympic National Park, so Mount Rainier ended up in between.

I had managed to secure a site for the three-day weekend near Mount Rainier at the Dalles Campground in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. I was surprised to find helpful hosts at the entrance waiting to check my name off the list, contrasting with the self check-in that was the norm at just about every place I travelled this summer.

The Dalles Campground is conveniently situated right along Highway 410, which means there is unfortunately a lot of road noise throughout the night. Still, most of the campsites are large and spaced far apart, and some offer views of the White River.

Mount Rainier is a large park, primarily offering views of the mountain from the northeast in the Sunrise area and from the southwest in the Paradise area. With two full days, I planned to spend one day focusing on each area.

I hadn’t heard much about Mount Rainier, so I wasn’t prepared for the massive mountain views that unfolded as I drove to the Sunrise area. The views get bigger and bigger as the road goes higher and higher, with a cloudy day becoming sunny as I seemingly drove through the clouds.

After circling the parking lot several times to find a spot, I jockeyed for space on the busy Sourdough Ridge Trail to Frozen Lake. The lake itself wasn’t much to see, but the views of mountains and meadows from the ridgeline are spectacular!

Nearly as wondrous as the natural surroundings is the peaceful gathering of people from around the world. I’m no expert, but I’m sure I heard at least a half-dozen languages on my first short hike. It’s the United Nations in park form.

The Silver Forest Trail, which runs along the canyon rim, proved to be much quieter and still had numerous wildflowers in bloom on this early September day. I only passed one other group of hikers on the way in but then encountered several groups on the way back who, despite being on an “easy” trail, were all very excited to be there!

The next day I made my way to the Paradise area, which lives up to its name. It attracts so many people that it has three parking lots and additional parking along the road, all of which filled up by late morning on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

Fortunately, I got there earlier and watched the line of cars grow as I climbed higher and higher on the awe-inspiring Skyline Loop Trail.

The six-mile loop takes hikers on an elevation gain of more than 1,700 feet to Panoramic Point, though the awesome views start much earlier. The photo opportunities offer plenty of excuses to take a rest on the way uphill.

While the Sunrise area was great, the Paradise area offers a more up close and intimate look at Mount Rainier, complete with glaciers, waterfalls, and sharing the trail with people who are actually going to climb the mountain.

It was definitely the most crowded hiking trail I’ve ever seen. There were traffic jams at narrow points and rocky areas along the cliff edge. At one point a hiker froze in place, fearing a fall if she went one step farther, until another hiker headed in the opposite direction offered her hand. More park diplomacy.

It’s definitely a hike I want to do again.

Between the physical exhaustion of the hike and the mental exhaustion of the crowds, I didn’t have much energy for more adventures but did visit the Longmore Museum, which still has a few displays developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps nearly a century ago. The museum at the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center also had vintage displays about the area’s geology and environment that appeared to date to the `50s or `60s.

From Mount Rainier you can see many other mountain peaks, including my next destination, Mount St. Helen’s. More on that next time!