Mount Rainier National Park – Fire and Ice

The drive from Seattle to Mount Rainier took longer than we thought. We were happy to still snatch a campsite, so we could take our time for the Burrough Mountain trail. It’s a beautiful hike, going through alpine meadows first. Then, the vegetation recedes and you’re in a barren volcanic landscape, walking over basalt, ashes and pumice from former eruptions. Plus, there’s always the intimidating, huge Mt Rainier volcano in front of you. The summit was carefully hidden by clouds almost the whole time. That made it even more intimidating and mysterious because we could only imagine how high it really is. While hiking to the third peak of Burrough Mountain, we got closer and closer to Mt Rainier, until we could see the deep, gaping crevasses of the Winthrop Glacier. Then, we got lucky and the sky cleared up, finally revealing the enormous, pyramid-shaped Mt Rainier, covered in ice and snow from the glaciers.

On our way back, we encountered some fearless golden-mantled ground squirrels. They already stole a bag of peanuts from a woman picnicking. As I held out my bare hand, they even started nibbling my fingers until they realized it’s nothing edible. As another man unpacked his snacks, they scrambled upon him and tried to get into the bag. But still, they were so cute! As the dusk set in and only a few tourists were still on the trail, we could even see some marmots. I got very close (ca. 1,5 m) to a big one calmly chowing some plants.

On the second day in Mt Rainier National Park, we hiked the Skyline Trail Loop. It starts in Paradise, which lives up to its name with beautiful alpine meadows, flowers blossoming in a variety of colours and small creeks coming from the glacier. When we got higher, we found ourselves walking on volcanic rock like basalt again. From Panorama Point, we could not only admire Mt Rainier but also the other impressive volcanoes nearby: Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens, our next stop.

Click to watch marmot video