This was my first up-close look of Mt. Rainier, and therefore my first traverse! The views were absolutely breath taking, and such a gorgeous fall sunny day. We were lucky. Overall, I am glad I did this trail. I conquered something, I accomplished something...I am proud. However, I learned my lesson on a few things.
I wore my hiking boots, but probably should have worn my tennis shoes. The path starts out paved, and turns into some tricky rocky sections that more nimble feet could traverse better, and lastly becomes well maintained gravel. My five year old needed help hiking the parts with lots of loose rocks, but overall did great on her own! There are several view points to stop and catch your breath and admire views, but the crowds made it difficult to stop and eat or breath away from people. We saw a marmot up close, a chipmunk almost sat with us, and we saw two mountain goats!
Beware when hiking this, you will follow the sign for "high sky line" trail when you reach panorama point. It's well marked, but just confused us at first when trying to figure out where we were/going to. The lack of oxygen had set it!
Things I didn't consider, and therefore learned my lesson: 1) this hike is essentially above the mountain's tree line, so we had no forest cover and it was a hot and sunny day on the mountain. Luckily I brought sunscreen, but still left a bit burnt. 2) The crowds were enormous, of which lots of people were not wearing masks. We got to the trail head at 10:30 AM and the main lot was full. Though not all those individuals are hiking as far as we did, there was not a moment we were alone on the trail. 3) The elevation at which you are hiking is high, and makes breathing difficult when exerting your energy. Especially when climbing the straight up portions for the first two miles and last smaller section back to the Paradise parking lot.
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