Reflection Lake via Narada Falls Snowshoe

Met a lovely young woman, who wanted to try snowshoeing. We headed up to Mt Rainier National Park and did the Reflection Lake trail from Narada Falls parking area. We took the route via Inspiration Point on the way out, and returned via Inspiration Saddle for a 3+ mile trip with about 500 ft of elevation gain.
It appeared that more water was flowing in the Paradise River compared to when I was here last month.

 The small falls along the Paradise River.

 With a moderate avy risk today, and being early in the day (still frozen hillsides), we choose to snowshoe along the Paradise Valley road view Inspiration Point on the way to the lake. Mt Rainier was covered in clouds, but we had views of the Tatoosh Range.

 Beautiful view looking west, down the valley where we had driven up on the road.

 This was the first time, I had seen Narada Falls while looking down from the road.

View looking across Reflection Lake from the south shore, Mt Rainier still hiding under the clouds. We had the morning at Reflection Lake to ourselves today!

Pano looking across Reflection Lake to the east.

 Looking south, up towards Pinnacle Peak.

 As the day was warming up, we decided to play it safe and take the route through the trees up to Inspiration Saddle on our way back to Narada Falls.

A beautiful day to snowshoe through the woods.

 Lots of interesting trees bent down under the weight of the snow.













We snowshoed for quite awhile before seeing others on the trail today. The trail was so quiet and magical.

As we continued along, we began to see the clouds lift off the mountain.

 Further along, we had a gorgeous view.

 The trail dropped us back down to the Paradise Valley Road in a section where there is no avy danger.

 So nice to have the sun higher in the sky and the days lengthening!

 Heading back where there were clear views of the Tatoosh Range and

 of Mt Rainer.

 I loved this combination of snow and moss covering the tree branch.

On our drive out, we stopped to view Christine Falls.
Upper Christine Falls:

Lower Christine Falls

 water cascading down to the road