Day 2 - Thursday 7/26/2018 - Hike Skyline Trail in Paradise
Brian woke up at 4:45 AM which was 6:45 AM back home, but snoozed on and off until 6:00. Breakfast here is a help serve yourself style starting at 7:00 AM. They had a pretty nice assortment including some hot food items. We ate and hit the road about 7:45 AM and headed for Paradise. There was a bike race going on in MRNP today, but luckily we were ahead of them so the road was clear and the weather sunny!
We arrived at Paradise about 8:30 AM and started on the famous Skyline Trail. The views kept getting better and better. This was a fantastic hike, but was on the warmer side. This is probably the hike of Mount Rainier National Park. It allows you to really see what all the park has to offer! There is some serious elevation gain on the hike to be ready for a good grind but it is all doable. We cut off the eastern portion of the hike by taking the Golden Gate Trail back down. We arrived back at the Jackson Visitor Center at about 1:00 PM and got a Gatorade to help from the heat. There are a few notable water falls near the Jackson Visitor Center. If you don't have time for the full hike, these should still be seen!
We then decided to go try to do Snow Lake trail as well. And got there about 2:00. We probably shouldn’t have done this since the trail has bugs like crazy and was hot and still. The views of Snow Lake were nice, but nothing special. The heat and the bugs really got to us on this hike!
We got back to the car about 3:45 PM and was back at Alexander’s Lodge at about 4:30 PM. We all showered and then needed to refuel the car and pick up more water, sunscreen, chapstick and bug spray so headed into Ashford for that. We found one gas station and a store in Ashford where we could buy some supplies, it was a little expensive for what we bought, but had all that we needed. We then headed back to Copper Inn for dinner and then headed back to Alexander’s Lodge to pack. We all passed out around 9 PM. Tiring but rewarding day!
Skyline Trail via Golden Gate - 4.6 Miles Loop; 1788 ft elevation gain
Snow Lake Trail - 1.6 Miles Round Trip; 320 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E
We got back to the car about 3:45 PM and was back at Alexander’s Lodge at about 4:30 PM. We all showered and then needed to refuel the car and pick up more water, sunscreen, chapstick and bug spray so headed into Ashford for that. We found one gas station and a store in Ashford where we could buy some supplies, it was a little expensive for what we bought, but had all that we needed. We then headed back to Copper Inn for dinner and then headed back to Alexander’s Lodge to pack. We all passed out around 9 PM. Tiring but rewarding day!
Skyline Trail via Golden Gate - 4.6 Miles Loop; 1788 ft elevation gain
Snow Lake Trail - 1.6 Miles Round Trip; 320 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E