Beautiful clear sunny day in Western Washington, we headed up to Narada Falls on Mt Rainier to begin our snowshoe trip. We decided on a loop hike of about 6 miles and 1200 ft elevation gain. The trail head was in the shade, windy and very cold. We quickly warmed up as the hike starts on a steep up hill for 0.5 mile.
We choose to snowshoe to Reflection Lakes via inspiration point. The avalanche chutes were still in the shade and the cool of the morning was keeping them stable. This was a nice flat section of the trail for about one mile. Beautiful of Mt Rainier behind us.
We did a short stop at Reflection Lakes to enjoy the view and take photos.
Then the ascent of Mazama Ridge, part way up, as Mt Rainier came back in view, we stopped to enjoy lunch.
We also had gorgeous views of the Tatoosh Range to the south. The winter route up Mazama Ridge is about 2 miles, much shorter than the summer route. We had tracks to follow the whole way.
Ready to begin our descent of Mazama Ridge.
Steep 0.5 mile descent to the roadway via 4th crossing.
Slow ascent up the road to Paradise.
Then another steep descent from Paradise down to Narada Falls. Today's hike was a walk in a winter wonderland!
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