Snowshoe to Mazama Ridge and the Paradise Glacier Trail

 Superbowl Sunday was a gorgeous day to head up to the Paradise area at Mt Rainier Nat'l Park for a snowshoe trek. Our trip was about 5 miles rt with over 800 ft of elevation gain. There was a lot more snow than when I was here last month.
We started by going along the Paradise Valley Road, nice tracks already laid down by previous travelers.







Heading toward Mazama Ridge and the 4th crossing route up.

 We saw some very small animal prints along the way.

 So uplifting to watch the clouds lift and sail away as we made our way up Mazama Ridge in the morning.

Panorama view looking back west towards Paradise and Mount Rainier, mid way up Mazama Ridge:

We met two young men who had spent the night in an igloo they had made atop Mazama Ridge. It was already coming apart in the morning warmth.

From Mazama Ridge, we headed up towards where the Skyline Trail and Paradise Glacier "trails" split. Tatoosh Range in the background

 With all the new snow accumulation, this portion of the "trail" was narrow and steep.

















Here we stopped following the tracks of the people who had taken the Skyline Route up towards Panorama Point, and laid down fresh tracks as we walked over the area where the Paradise Glacier Trail lies far below the snow.

Up towards the ridge overlooking Stevens Canyon.

I found my favorite winter lunch spot, there was so much snow with large cornices, so we stayed way back from the edge.
The views here are breathtaking!

Panoramic view looking west - northwest towards Mount Rainier and Mount Tahoma

 Panoramic View looking east - south towards the Goat Rocks, Mt Adams, the Tatoosh Range, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens:

 zoom of Mt St Helens peeking behind the Tatoosh Range to the southwest








zoom of Mt Adams peeking behind the Tatoosh Range to the southeast

 zoom of Mt Hood far to the south beyond the Tatoosh Range Mt Hood appears as a blue shadow of one of the small peaks on the Tatoosh








After a leisurely lunch break, we came down from my favorite winter lunch spot,

















walking straight into gorgeous view of Mt Rainier. We had this small portion of the park to ourselves today.











As we continued down to Mazama Ridge, we could see many people had come here to enjoy this beautiful winter day.

As we returned along the Paradise Valley Road towards Paradise, we could see many pinwheels had come down the short hillside along the road. This one was as large as a tire.

On the drive back down towards Longmire, we stopped at the Narada Falls parking lot, and found the "trail" to the viewpoint of the falls down below as not too icy, slightly slushy snow in the afternoon. Very short steep way down to the view area.

As my hiking friends had not seen Christine Falls before, we stopped to take photos here also.

Upper Christine Falls as seen from the roadside.

Lower Christine Falls as seen from the lookout near the parking pull out on the upper side of the bridge.