Visiting Mt. Rainier

Despite having lived in Washington most of my life, Mt. Rainier was one place my siblings and I had never been. We finally had some nice weather and decided to make the trek up there!

It took us a couple of hours to get up there from my grandparents' house, and once we got into the park we searched for a place to stop and eat our lunch.

We found an area with some picnic tables and we ate our lunch. The weather was really nice! Warm, and clear blue skies, except for a few clouds surrounding the mountain. After lunch we walked over to the first viewing area where we caught our first view of the mountain from inside the park! 

It took us quite a while to actually get up the mountain as there was quite a bit of construction on the way up, plus there was a fair amount of cars. 

We were disappointed that the clouds hadn't gone away. But unfortunately that is pretty typical with Mount Rainier! 

It was hot when we reached Paradise, which is where the lodge and visitor center is. We were not expecting it to be as warm as it was. I believe it was in the 80's.

We started our hike up the Skyline trail, which was incredibly steep! The lodge is at 5,400 feet in elevation, and then we hiked about a mile and a half, and ended up at 6,700 feet in elevation! Talk about steep!

We really enjoyed our time at Mount Rainier and I'm glad we finally got to go visit! It was just so beautiful! While I wish the clouds had gone away, they just seemed to keep circling around the mountain so we could never get a completely clear view. I would definitely recommend visiting if you're ever in Washington!