The road up to Paradise was in excellent condition. The trails are covered in about 2 feet of snow and your options are a little limited since 2 feet of snow is still not a lot but enough to need (should need) gear. I heard Nisqually Vista has a nice path cut into it but it may not have the poles up yet. The first part of Skyline is packed down so my spikes worked fine with no postholing. About twenty minues in, you run into deep postholes. Then you encounter so many postholes it becomes a hazard and really slows your trek. I cussed. It was cuss worthy. About thirty minutes up the trail, I switched to my snowshoes. That was still precarious in a few really choppy sections. It seems the trail splits. To the left you end up hitting upper Deadhorse Creek, the path I took. To the right you hit the Panorama Point snowshoe path. I then cut up Glacier Vista. I stopped before the summer route to Panorama Point. The views were surprisiningly amazing. I thought I would get a few minutes of coolness, but the weather system was very slow moving and the rain didn't hit until about 2pm. I wore my snowshoes all the way back to the parking lot and was so glad to have them as tourists slipped, slid, and zipped all over the place. While I sound cranky about the postholing, the people were all so neat to talk to.

Gear-if you're headed up to the mountain-pack the good stuff, snowshoes, poles with baskets, spikes, hand and foot warmers, buff, gloves, sunglassess, sunscreen, water. Don't forget it's tire traction time so pack that in your car along with super soft socks.

This was my first November snowshoe at Paradise, and it was the perfect kickoff to snow season!

The road
Chains are required to go up from Longmire to Paradise! If you don’t own any, they’re available for rent at a number of businesses in Ashford. It was just drizzling, and the road was in excellent condition, so we did not come even close to needing chains.

The trail
The trail is clearly marked throughout and well-trodden. The snow right now is pretty wet, so if you intend to play in the snow at all, I recommend bringing out any and all waterproof gear. We had a great time romping around in our snowshoes and being goofs in the snow. We got some fresh, beautiful snow during our hike, which was magical.

Visibility
We saw parts of the mountain on our drive in but it was not visible throughout our hike. However, we stopped for a lunch break with a view of the Tatoosh range against the gray, snowy sky.

Parking lot
Heads up: The lot closes at 4:30 so that everyone is out of Paradise in time for the Longmire gate to close at 5:00. The bathrooms at the Paradise visitor center and off of the parking lot are open.

How lucky are we to live near this snowy marvel?

WOW. After our plans had been thwarted by weather the day before, we returned to the park before 7 a.m. for what was foretold to be a clear morning - and we were not disappointed. When we arrived at Paradise, the sky was bright and the mountain was visible for only a few seconds through the fog. But after hiking for about 3/4 of a mile, we got our first glimpse of the full mountain through the fog. As we continued, the mountain became more and more visible until we passed completely through the cloud line. The view of Tahoma in the sunshine was unreal. Standing at Glacier Vista was unreal. Surrounded by sunshine and sparkling snow, we had the clearest view of the mountian's glaciers and peaks ahead of us and Mounts Adams, Saint Helens, and Hood peeking up above the cloud line behind us.

The trail had been well-travelled the past few days, so despite the previous day's precipitation, the trail was very clear. Just make sure to follow the orange sticks in the snow and do not go past the X's.

My mom and I wore Yaktrax and carried a pole each, which was plenty to keep from slipping. I highly recommend some traction for folks who, like me, are new to hiking on snow like this. However, my partner went without traction and was a-ok. The trail was well-packed but you can expect to posthole when you step off the well-trodden path.

Started around 7:10 a.m. and returned by about 9:30. This was with many stops to enjoy this unforgettable view! We encountered 20-30 other small hiking groups/pairs earlier on in our hike but still had 10-15 minutes to ourselves at the vista, though larger crowds had started to form by the time we got back down to the visitor center.

I took full advantage of the recent snows and then clear weather and snow shoed up to Glacier Vista. It was a Friday, the first day the road was open so there were quite a few people. The snow was deep enough that snow shoes were required, people were post holing using micro spikes or just boots. The views were outstanding today. As the day wore on, the snow got slushier as temperatures were in the 50s. The road up was mostly dry.

Great bluebird day up on the mountain! Went all the way out to the saddle and backtracked to the vista point . Was fab! Definitely getting a little warm with all the reflection off the snow.