Paradise Glacier Trail

We drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park hoping to hike up to the Paradise Glacier, conditions permitting. Although the weather forecast said mostly sunny, it was cloudy when we arrived. We were happy to see wildflowers in bloom at the 4th Crossing Parking area in Paradise Valley.

Our route was up to Mazama Ridge from 4th Crossing and taking the Paradise Glacier Trail up through the area once covered by the Paradise Glacier. I had hiked up to the toe of Paradise Glacier 6 years ago on the way to the saddle by Cowlitz Rocks. Today, because of poor visibility, near freezing temperatures, increasing winds and the amount of snowfields in the unmaintained portion of the trail we turned back before reaching the current location of the Paradise Glacier. We did hike beyond the maintained trail, further than what is shown on the map on this sign (the Paradise Glacier has not been as low as depicted in this sign for many years). Today we hiked about 5 miles round trip with 1,200' gain.

The trail starts out along the Paradise River.

We found some ripe huckleberries.

After 0.25 miles the 4th Crossing Trail joins the Skyline Loop Trail, we stopped to enjoy this view from the bridge over the Paradise River, before hiking the other direction up to Mazama Ridge.

Along the trail we saw a variety of wildflowers including lots of willow herb.

Up on Mazama Ridge, we were in the clouds.

There were an assortment of wildflowers in the meadows.

ground squirrel

After turning off on the Paradise Glacier Trail, the temperature dropped and we noticed frost on the wildflowers. 

Tarn along the Paradise Glacier Trail

As  we continued, we found more frosty and frozen wildflowers.

  

 In some areas where snow melt was flowing down the hillside, there were lovely patches of moss, lichen and wildflowers.

The visibility was limited as we continued past the maintained trail.

We hiked around most of the snow fields we encountered. Here we saw openings under the edge of the snow field/snow bridges.

We walked up to the edge of the opening and looked in, the color was amazing.

We passed another large snow field with a snow bridge.

The snow bridge was very thin, reinforcing our decision to not cross on the thicker snow fields.

View under the snow bridge from standing at the outer edge.

We only crossed over thin snow patches that were on the ground (no snow bridges).

Higher up the route, the wildflowers had snow covering and  many were frozen.

The clouds stayed low, limiting our visibility.

View of Stevens Creek disappearing under a large snow field. As the wind picked up and now sign of the "mostly sunny" weather, we decided to turn around here. This was reinforced as we heard large rock fall further up along our planned route.

Another view of one of the large snow fields as we returned down towards the maintained trails.

By the time we returned to Mazama Ridge, the clouds were beginning to lift.

We were able to enjoy views of the Tatoosh Ridge beyond the meadows.

Lovely to see what was hidden by the clouds when we hiked up (except Mt Rainier remained in the clouds).

We also saw a couple of marmots today

Back at the trailhead, we had a lovely view of some of the Tatoosh Peaks beyond the wildflowers. We ate lunch in the car, and in that short time, the temperature dropped fro 45F to 41F.

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today: