Elevation Gain: Approximately 2000 ft.
Time: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Weather: A cool but spectacularly sunny day.
A great snowshoe trip again today. Three friends from work joined me as I went up to Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park. This was my first visit to the park in the winter, and I know it will definitely not be my last.
We parked at Narda Falls, just below the Paradise Visitor's Center. We then snowshoed up the most ridiculous hill. It was crazy steep. There is no way we could have done this except for the snow conditions today. The snow was crunchy and icy. This early it was especially rigid and the gripping teeth in the snowshoes made it like I was locked into the side of the hill. It was a short, but tough climb to a nice wide snowed over road leading straight to Reflection Lake. This was the main destination of my trip. We were at the lake by 11:00 am, and decided we had a lot of time so we were going to take the long way back. Right at Reflection Lake there was a trail to Paradise going along the Mazama Ridge.
The views of Mount Rainier, the Tatoosh Mountains, surrounding peaks, and the river valleys below were breath taking. The walk was long. The snow overall was easy to walk on, but as the day went on and the snow got warmer, it did become a bit tough in places.
It was a great day with good friends and glorious weather. No better way to spend a Saturday.
Orchid: Rainier is so beautiful.
Onion: Right ankle is in BAD shape.
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