Another beautiful day took me back to Paradise, this time to hike the Skyline Loop Trail on Mt Rainier. We were hoping to take the High Skyline Loop Trail (marked in green), but did not find a way down from 7,000 ft that we felt comfortable with. So we headed back down to Panorama Point and took what is the "low" trail (marked in pink). We hiked/snowshoed about 4.5 miles with an overall 1,800 ft of gain.
There is not a lot of snow at Paradise, we could still see the trail sign in the snow.
We found the tracks going up to Panorama Point and beyond towards Camp Muir very well packed down so we carried our snowshoes and wore microspikes for this section.
Before reaching Panorama Point, we could see Mt Adams and Mt St Helens behind the Tatoosh Range.
Looking ahead to the line of people heading toward Panorama Point.
It was very warm on the snow today!
I love looking at Mt Rainier, especially in the winter with lots of snow coverage.
Part way up Panorama Point. The east side was icy, we kick stepped up this side.
There were patches of bare dirt and rock up at Panorama Point. We could see as far south as Mt Hood (between Adams and St Helens)
We also saw the Goat Rocks to the southeast
We continued up above Panorama Point, following where the "High" trail should be at 7,000 ft.
Took our time enjoying all the views,
before deciding we would return down to Panorama Point.
We decided to glissade down the soft snow on the west side of Panorama Point to continue on the Skyline Loop.
The avalanche risk was low today, and there was not much snow on the slopes, so we felt safe with this option today.
Looking back up Panorama Point along the glissade path.
On this side the snow was less packed down, fewer people. We needed to wear our snowshoes to avoid post holing.
Beautiful section of the route above Paradise.
We were easily able to see the stream and bridge crossing with the little snow on the trail here.
Gorgeous!
The route took us to Mazama Ridge and down to Fourth Crossing
We saw a friend across the creek on the side of Mazama Ridge, so we crossed over this log bridge to go say hi and continue down to the road.
Fun day!
There is not a lot of snow at Paradise, we could still see the trail sign in the snow.
There were patches of bare dirt and rock up at Panorama Point. We could see as far south as Mt Hood (between Adams and St Helens)
Beautiful section of the route above Paradise.
We were easily able to see the stream and bridge crossing with the little snow on the trail here.
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