We arrived at the southeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park in the morning, we had read that you have to get there early, and our first stop was Grove of the Patriarchs. Walking on this trail in the morning with very little people around, was a really cool experience. We hiked about a half mile to a foot bridge that crosses the Ohanapecosh River. This bridge is a one-person-at-a-time bridge and is really cool to walk across. Once we crossed the bridge, we wind around on a trail that took us through an old growth forest that was absolutely majestic and a little bit magical. This is certainly a stop you need to make when visiting Mount Rainier.
After visiting Grove of the Patriarchs, we headed to Paradise. All of the information that I had read said that Paradise was one of the most beautiful places in the park, so we for sure wanted to stop there. As we drove along the road, my kids kept asking when are we going to see Rainier, and then all of a sudden, this majestic mountain came into view and it was breathtaking!! The pictures cannot even begin to express the size of this mountain. We were in complete awe of it's grandeur. We did 2 short hikes while at Paradise. The first hike was to Myrtle Falls (1 mile) and the second was the Nisqually Vista Trail (1 mile) which puts you in site of the Nisqually Glacier. Both hikes were beautiful and there were even some wildflowers still in bloom. We also found huckleberries along the Nisqually Vista Trail, yum! I highly recommend visiting Paradise on a weekday in the morning, it was perfect. We wish that we had had more time to spend hiking. We can't wait to come back to Mount Rainier and explore the rest of the park.
