THREE HIKING SISTERS, we love to hike together, but we don't all live in the same state. Sometimes it is only two of us, and sometimes we hike with others. This is a record of some of our hikes.
After hiking up at Paradise in Mt Rainier National Park this morning, I stopped at Narada Falls and Christine Falls before leaving the park. Narada Falls is about 0.25 mile round trip with 100 ft loss/gain.
View of Lane Peak from the trail above Narada Falls
Paradise River above Narada Falls 
Upper Christine Falls can be seen from the side of the road
Lower Christine Falls seen under the road (bridge), is a short walk from the upper parking area.
I drove up to the Narada Falls parking lot hoping yo snowshoe out to Reflection Lakes and back via Inspiration Saddle (this route is marked and does not go through avalanche terrain). Because of the deep fresh snow and short time, I ended up only getting a bit past Inspiration Saddle. I did not see any other people until I returned to the Narada Falls parking lot today. Overall I snowshoed about 3.5 miles with 650 ft of elevation gain. View of Mt Rainier from a pull out along the road.
View of Paradise River from the bridge before the Comfort Station and Trailhead.
There were no cars when I arrived at the trailhead and no tracks in the snow at the trailhead or anywhere along my route today.
The Paradise River was beautiful with all the fresh snow from earlier this week.
After the trail joined the closed Paradise Valley Road, I headed out a short ways on the Stevens Canyon Road towards Inspiration Saddle for a view Mt Rainier.
With an avalanche risk of considerable at treelike and above, moderate below treelike, but reports of avalanches on low aspects, I opted to not take the route to Reflection Lakes via Inspiration Point and Stevens Canyon Road, but turned back at this sign. I returned and headed up the closed Stevens Canyon Road for about 0.3 mile to the trail heading over Inspiration Saddle.
view of Mt Rainier along the way
Sun trying to break through the clouds
I saw lots of these prints in the snow. They were bigger than weasel prints and claw marks were visible.
Another view of Mt Rainier as I neared Inspiration Saddle. I continued a short ways beyond the saddle and found the snow even deeper. I decided by the time I reached Reflection Lakes I would might not return in time for the early closing of the gate at Longmire as breaking trail where I was sinking 6-12" in snow was very tiring .
my track
I stopped at this view for a break on my way back down from Inspiration Saddle.
another view of Mt Rainier along the route
zoom of Pyramid Peak seen to the west
Heading back down the closed Paradise Valley Road
zoom of a Tatoosh Peak 
Before returning to the trail back to Narada Falls, I went to the bridge above Ruby Falls for this lovely view of the Paradise River.
Ruby Falls below the bridge
Once back at the trailhead, I went down to the view of Narada Falls.
Lane Peak as seen above Narada Falls
View of Upper Christine Falls
Lower Christine Falls
View of the Paradise River on our way to the Narada Falls trailhead
Narada Falls
View of Lane Peak from above Narada Falls, as I started out from the parking area at Narada Falls.
Start of the marked trail up towards Reflection Lakes. There is a lot more snow since I was here 6 weeks ago.
Even with some fresh snow from last night, the route from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes was well packed down.
I opted to go to Reflection Lakes via Inspiration Point. Along the closed Stevens Canyon Road, I had a fabulous view of the western Tatoosh Peaks.
Mt Rainier from near Inspiration Point
The route via Inspiration Point goes by two avalanche slopes. I was comfortable going this way in the morning before the sun hit this side of the slope, as the temperature was in the 20s and the avalanche risk was moderate below tree line today.
closer look at Eagle and Chutla Peaks in the Tatoosh Range
A look back at Mt Rainier as I continued beyond Inspiration Point.
I was the first person to Reflection Lakes this morning, but I saw some critter had beat me out on the packed trail earlier this morning.
Sun shining behind Pinnacle Peak before it was covered in clouds.
First view of Reflection Lake
Mt Rainier across Reflection Lake, once I left the packed down trail, I was post holing at least 12" in fresh snow.
From Reflection Lakes, I headed up the trail via Inspiration Saddle.
At Inspiration Saddle, I could glimpse Mt Rainier through the trees. Here, I headed east up the High Lakes Trail. From here the route is not marked.
I was happy to see that the route had been broken the day before by another snowshoer. I was hoping they had gone all the way to the junction of the 4th Crossing Trail, but they only went about 1 mile before turning back.
It was so quiet and peaceful on Mazama Ridge, I was up here by myself, until I passed two other snowshoers as I was coming back down. I could see the clouds had almost completely covered Mt Rainier.
I enjoyed watching the clouds moving across the landscape.
icicles on tree branches
clouds covering Mazama Ridge
sun trying to break through the clouds
Pinnacle Peak being surrounded by clouds
clouds on Mazama Ridge
enjoying the beautiful snowy Mazama Ridge
Instead of trying to break trail in deep snow by myself, I turned back and stopped at a viewpoint along Mazama Ridge for a break. I was able to see the top of Mt Rainier through the clouds for a brief moment.
Heading back down Mazama Ridge into the clouds.
Before the last section of trail back to Narada Falls, I stopped to view the Paradise River above Ruby Falls.
The marked trail from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes, does not go near Ruby Falls, so I broke trail to get a view of Ruby Falls.
Ruby Falls
I took the short trail down to Narada Falls before leaving.