Panorama Point on Mt Rainier Winter Hike

Today the weather was warm (in the 50s to 60s at Paradise), sunny and low avalanche risk. Perfect day to head up to Panorama Point above Paradise on Mount Rainier. This hike is about 3 miles round trip (going up and coming back the same way) with 1300 ft of elevation gain. Being mid-week, the parking lot only had 3 cars when we started out.

 The hike starts gaining early on, and before long we were high enough where we could see volcanic peaks beginning to appear over the Tatoosh mtns, Mt. Adams

 and Mt St Helens.

 Today, the snow was well packed and we were able to make our way up using micro spikes. Panorama Point ahead.

 We followed bear tracks in the snow for a bit.

The winter trail up the side of Panorama Point is very steep.

The view from Panorama Point was spectacular. 

Looking south and seeing Mt Adams, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens.

 There were no tracks to follow heading out along the skyline trail or down to Edith Creek Basin, so we decided to head back down the west side of Panorama Point, the way we had hiked up. We hiked down part way, the glissaded!

We continued to enjoy the view as we hiked back to the parking lot at Paradise. About 1/2 mile from the parking lot, the snow had softened enough in the heat, we began to post hole, so we finally put our snowshoes on for the last bit.