We stayed in Seattle when we visited Washington State. The three National Parks were definitely high on our agenda. We had a very limited timeframe for these visits during our stay in August.  We only were able to visit each park for a day. We decided to at least get a small taste of the beauty rather than nothing.

The weather at Mount Rainier is very temperamental and when we visited the peak of Mount Rainier was obscured by clouds.

When we visited we entered the park through the Nisqually Entrance (no advance reservation was needed.) We headed toward the Visitor’s Center at Paradise. While driving from the entrance of the park to Paradise we made a short stop at the beautiful Narada Falls. The waterfall is visible from the parking lot. It took us a few short minutes to get grom the parking lot down to the waterfall and see it in its entirety. We took in the panoramic views of the surrounding mountains from the parking lot before heading back to our car.

We continued the drive to Paradise while enjoying views of mountains all around. The drive from the Nisqually Entrance to the Paradise parking lot takes about 40 minutes without stops. All throughout there are beautiful views to enjoy.

Our original plan was to hike the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point Overlook. We were advised that the views on that hike are breathtaking! When we arrived at the Visitors Center we were told that the peak was obscured by clouds and none of the magnificent views were visible.

The helpful Ranger advised us to take the trail to the majestic Myrtle Falls. The trail was not especially long and we were able to enjoy views of the mountains across Paradise Valley.

After returning to the Visitor’s Center and enjoying a quick picnic lunch we continued on to the Nisqually Vista Trail to enjoy the colorful wildflowers which blossom in the summer.

The Nisqually Trail loop offered views of the Nisqually River and the majestic Nisqually Glacier before taking us back to where we started from near the Visitor’s Center.

Although we didn’t get to see the most awesome views Mount Rainier has to offer we got a small taste of the beauty within the park.

As we were driving back to Seattle we started spotting the peak of Mount Rainier crowned by a thick layer of clouds. It looked majestic from afar but we understood that from up close there is no visibility with clouds that thick.

Posted: January 11, 2026