Out last day of our 10 day road trip included touring Mount Rainier National Park. We started 10 days prior in Montana, followed by a few days in Canada, a day visiting the North Cascades National Park, and one in Olympic National Park. Since this was our last day, we both had booked evening flights, so we spend the morning and early afternoon in the park. If we had time to stay another night, I would recommend checking out the lodging options in Mount Rainier.
We left from Olympia and entered through the Nisqually Entrance in the south which was just under 2 hours from our hotel. Our first stop was the Longmire Historic District where there was a little museum and 1900s stye buildings we could walk around.
Next stop was Paradise. In Paradise, there’s a parking lot for the visitors center, but during peak season it’s pretty full so we parked in the lower lot and hiked up to the center. We had lunch at the cafe and ate outside at a picnic table with direct views of the mountain. We visited the gift shop before heading back down to our car.
We wandered through the park by car; driving down into canyons and back up and into the thick forest. There were pull outs for vistas and hiking trails throughout. We took route 123 up to route 410 to complete the loop of the park back toward the Seattle Airport. It was about 7 hours of driving during the day but worth seeing one last park before we headed back home.
To read more about the highlights of the 10 days in the US and Canada, check back shortly for a summary post of the trip!
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