Hiking Mount Rainier's magical Skyline Trail comes close to paradise

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NWsource

September 12, 1996

Hiking Mount Rainier's magical Skyline Trail comes close to paradise

By KAREN SYKES
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Fat marmots dining on scented gardens of lupine and other wildflowers, the dirty snout of a glacier and its associated snowfields, clumps of subalpine fir and hemlock, and -- floating indifferently above the micro-environments -- Mount Rainier. The Mountain.

This is what the hiker samples on the Skyline Trail, a short but steep loop hike that begins and ends in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park.

But do not look for solitude, at least not in summer. This is where you bring your grandparents or children or a co-worker who has never hiked before. It is a perfect place to experience the explosion of summer on the mountain, its intense season of gentians, lupine, magenta and orange paintbrush, the lazy buzz of bees in sweet meadows.

Rainier has a magical pull on just about everyone, despite the crowds. It's big enough to go around. And rock-lined paths will keep you on the trail and off the meadows' fragile alpine vegetation.

You'll have to stop at the Nisqually entrance station and pay the fee, $5 per car or $25 for a one-year Golden Eagle Pass. You'll get a free map, a smile from under the broad brim of a ranger hat and any pertinent information you might need to know.

The loop is well-signed, and side trips to Glacier Vista and Myrtle Falls are short and worth the extra boot stomps. You can also add a couple miles to the trip and probably find some solitude by taking the side trail to the Paradise Ice Caves, which, incidentally, are no more.

There are plenty of benches en route for you to sit on and gaze up at the mountain -- that blue-green tinge you see is ice, not a reflection of the sky. You might encounter climbers on their way up or down, or climbing students on their way to practice crevasse rescue techniques.

Map Getting there
There are several approaches from Seattle to the Nisqually entrance to the Park. State Route 7 from Tacoma will get you there, or you can pick that route up in Puyallup and follow it through Eatonville to Elbe. From Elbe, head east on SR 706 to the entrance station, past Longmire and to Paradise -- about three hours from Seattle.

Trail detail
The first half-mile is paved and climbs up a ridge toward the mountain. Turn your back on the monster and you'll see the Tatoosh Range with its challenging peaks, such as Castle, Pinnacle, Boundary and Lane. There also is a good view down to the Nisqually Glacier before you reach Panorama Point, with its views -- if skies are fair -- of other volcanoes: Adams, St. Helens and perhaps even Hood.

On a recent trip, we lunched here near the high point of the loop, then began a gentle descent onto Mazama Ridge and other options. We chose the ice caves trail, even though the illustrious caves are long since melted out, leaving a few snowfields and a bustling stream milky with glacial run-off. The snow fields melt out from underneath, presenting the possibility of a hiker breaking through and falling into a hole, so heed the warning signs.

This trail is marked by rock cairns where it passes a glacial moraine. Anywhere is a dramatic place to stop -- below lies the green of forest and meadow and above, the white and blue of glaciers.

Back on the Skyline Trail, the path drops into Paradise Valley and returns to the parking lot.

Trail data
Allow three hours for the five-mile loop, which involves an elevation gain of 1,700 feet. The high point is 6,900 feet and is usually free of snow by late July. Snow usually returns sometime in October. Hiking boots are recommended because parts of the trail can be covered by snow year round. For details, see "50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park," by Ira Spring and Harvey Manning (The Mountaineers, $10.95).