Mazama Ridge

Drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier NP to hike up to Mazama Ridge. A beautiful sunny day, the snow was well packed down, so I used micro spikes and did not need to use snowshoes. Overall 4 miles with 1,000 ft of gain. Loved seeing the pattern of runnels at the far end of Paradise Valley with the Tatoosh Range to the south.

zoom photos of runnels on Alta Vista to the west as I continued walking along the Paradise Valley Road to 4th Crossing.

view of Mt Rainier part way up Mazama Ridge

Lots of tracks up on Mazama Ridge from hikers/snowshoers from the past several days. Looking south to the Tatoosh Range, from here, I turned around and continued north along what would be part of the Paradise Glacier Trail.

I was up here by myself enjoying this view of Mt Rainier. I only saw 5 other hikers all day along this route.

View to the southeast from my favorite winter lunch spot (Mt Rainier is behind me). Interesting to see this crack on the cornice. Behind the Tatoosh are Old Snowy, Mt Adams, Mt Hood and further to the west Mt St Helens

zoom of Old Snowy in the Goat Rocks

zoom of Mt Adams

zoom of Mt Hood, which looks like a shadow of one of the Tatoosh Peaks

zoom of Mt St Helens

The runnels running down the hills make interesting patterns in the snow.

Another view of the Tatoosh Range, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens as I head back to Mazama Ridge

Looking back at Mt Rainier and Little Tahoma

Continuing down to Mazama Ridge, love hiking into the views of the Tatoosh

View from the east side of Mazama Ridge

I spy someone's snow cave

entrance to the snow cave

snow cave with a view of Mt Rainier up on Mazama Ridge

I love this framed view of Mt Rainier as I start down off of Mazama Ridge

View of the Tatoosh Range along the closed Paradise Valley Road as I near the parking area

zoom of the Castle, Pinnacle Peak and Plummer Peak