Sunday August 29th, we planned on getting up early at our camp to beat the crowds to the parking lot at Paradise. The plan was to take our camp stove and eat there and get ready at the parking lot. I was awakened at about 6 am by my husband saying that the cars are already heading up the highway, we'd better get up there. So we drove up with me still in my pajamas and wearing my glasses. There were already several cars in the lot. The day before the lot was full and the cars were parked way down the road. Our plan worked we found a spot, I got dressed and put on my contacts while my husband made breakfast. After breakfast we got ready to begin our hike up the Skyline loop trail. It was a beautiful day, there wasn't as much smoke in the air.
Get ready for photo overload, it was just too beautiful❤
The first part of the trail is paved and has quite an incline.
At the end of the paved trail a wedding party was busy getting photos with Rainier in the background. They were lucky they had such a beautiful day.
We saw several marmots along the trail.
Love this view of Rainier behind me❤️
Mount Adams in the distance.
More trailside animals
He's a bit blurry, but I added it in anyway cause he's so cute.
Ever Upward
We passed the Camp Muir trail junction. Way back when the Ice caves were still open we hiked up to Camp Muir. I found an interesting 2015 article on Rainier's Ice caves, you can read it HERE.
Click on the panorama photo below to more clearly view Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens.
First viewing of the Panorama Point stone restroom building.
We weren't done climbing yet. The lower Skyline loop trail was closed, so up to the high trail it was! The photo below shows the lower trail going through the snow field.
Views from Panorama point.
Ever upward
but first a stop at the nice restroom.
Such a cute door!
A high up view of Rainier
My husband got a nice zoomed in photo of a waterfall coming off of Rainier
Animal life above 6000 feet
More Glacial melt
On our way down now
Looking back at where we'd come from, with a view of Little Tahoma off it's right shoulder.
Little Tahoma, can you spot the white coated marmot on the hillside?
The marmot didn't pose very well, but here is a zoomed in photo of the one that was on the hillside below Little Tahoma.
We ate lunch while we sat on a rock in one of the few shady spots along the trail.
Another fun zoom photo my husband took. 3 waterfalls coming off of Rainier.
The rest of the hike was much more lush with creeks and flowers along the way.
A Kim on a bridge sighting
As you can see the water was running over the trail in places.
A marmot enjoying a shady spot under a tree.
A grouse along the trail.
This rock bench was along the trail.
Such beautiful views❤
I thought I saw a movement from the corner of my eye, sure enough it was a deer. It never came out for a full view, but we saw it through it's camouflage.
A look back again
More creeks and flowers
Wow this is a wavy bridge.
Another Kim on a bridge sighting.
What a lot of photos! Hope you enjoyed our Skyline loop trailside hike.
After our hike we went to the Longmire Inn again and had a day after Anniversary dinner! We couldn't have come up with a better plan for how to celebrate our 50th❤. I'm glad I kept up my walking/biking/hiking and just plain moving while I was in my Chemo treatments, it really paid off.
