With the bluebird days forecasted this weekend I just knew I HAD to get out for a kid-free hike (first one in a while!). So I grabbed a friend and we drove up to Paradise to hike to Panorama Point.
We arrived at the gate between Longmire and Paradise at 8:50, just before it opened. There was already a line waiting. With the nice daytime temps and no precipitation the last few days, the road was all clear the whole way up (though we did bring our chains as required, just in case!). We got to the parking lot and were surprised at how fast it was filling up.
We brought both snowshoes and microspikes so we could choose accordingly once we got on the trail. The parking lot was a little icy in some places but we didn't put on our microspikes until we got to the snowbank to start hiking. We took the Skyline Loop in the clockwise direction. The terrain was about 99% snow - some areas the snow is already melted from the grass/rocks but expect to walk across crusty, thick, packed down snow, or follow other's bootsteps, for the majority of the hike. For this reason we kept our microspikes on the whole time, and didn't feel the need for our snowshoes.
The hike was a steady uphill until about 0.4 miles below Panorama Point - instead of going the long way around like the summer trail, hikers have opted to hike straight up the 500 ft to the point. For the most part there are deep sturdy boot tracks to follow up. There were lots of skiers out on the trail today, most of which we saw congregating at this area.
From Panorama point we had completely clear skies and a view of Adams, Hood, and St. Helens. The bathroom is completely free of snow but we did not enter so I am not sure if it was locked and/or clean.
We continued clockwise on our trek, which required a little more uphill before rounding the park below. From the north side of Panorama point, we could see the incredible cornice edge along the entire North side. A good reminder to not get too close to the edge.
There were several fun little glissade chutes we took advantage of. However, the last one I took had a nice big hard snowball in the middle and I am pretty sure I bruised my tailbone on it. Super fun experience aside from that!
We were able to follow footpaths for the entire hike back. There were a few times where the trail wandered off track, but a quick check on my GPS every once in a while ensured we were going the way we planned.
The last time I did this hike was just over 5 years ago when I was pregnant with my oldest, in the summer. It was a beautiful hike and so fun to do in the snow this time!
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