Visit to Paradise

Paradise is the most popular area of Mt Ranier. Many of the hiking trails start there and a lot of the technical climbers also start there. A Visitor's Center is located there as well as one of the two hotels on the park. It is called Paradise because an early female hiker proclaimed it a "Paradise" due to all the wild flowers in the subalpine meadows.

We left our campsite before 7:30 am and stopped for gas at Packwood. The restaurant proclaiming breakfast until 11 am didn't open until 10 am (what's up with that?) so we drove on to a small resort with a Mexican restaurant. I had huevos rancheros while Phil had eggs with ham. Both orders came with rice and beans and Phil's came with tortillas, too.

The drive to Paradise through the park's southeast entrance was uncrowded and even though there were many steep dropoffs, it was still beautiful. We arrived at Paradise before 11 am. Even on a Tuesday it was slammed. We were able to get a parking place, but still had to walk a long way to get to the Visitor's Center.

We made a loop through the Exhibits and watched the Mount Ranier movie. The mountain is the tallest in the Cascades. It has 26 glaciers and it is an active volcano. It was the 5th National Park and it is 96% Wilderness area. It receives more than 2 million visitors per year.

Mostly disturbing is that due to the amount of glacial ice, if there was eruption, much of the populated areas nearby (Tacoma, Seattle, etc) would probably be swept away or covered in huge mud rivers called Lahars. Phil and I are camped on the shore of one such river which comes directly off a glacier. Hope it doesn't happen tonight since we leave in the morning to work our way to Olympic National Park.

The stars are awesome at night here. We heard foxes barking last night and saw elk and deer today.Read more