So, there was lots of debating about this portion of our trip. First we debated about staying in the Mount Hood region vs. Mount Rainier, but Jason wanted to visit a national park and ultimately, the variety of hikes around the park swung me to Mount Rainier too. We also debated camping, but ultimately decided on renting a cabin because traveling with our camping equipment seemed too daunting. We found a Airbrb cabin in Packwood, which was about a 15-60 minute drive to the hikes we did.
The biggest bummer of our whole vacation was the amount of smoke from the Canadian fires during our stay. It really limited visibility and air quality was pretty bad. For awhile, we thought we wouldn't get a view of Mount Rainier at all, but we were able to see it during 2 of our hikes.
We made it to Packwood and grabbed lunch at one of the 5 eateries in town. (I think we ate at 3 out of the 5 during our trip, but we did cook a big bowl of chicken vegetable soup one night to get our vegetables in for the trip... hehe.)
Then we made a split decision to switch our planned hike for the afternoon. Instead of doing the Tipsoo Lake/ Naches Peak hike that was supposed to have good views of Mount Rainier, we switched it to the Silver Falls and Grove of the Patriarchs trails because of the smoke. We were hoping the smoke would clear out a bit before the Naches Peak hike.
We visited the Ohanapecosh campground and visitor center before starting on our hikes.
The Silver Falls trail to the Grove of the Patriarchs hike was a bit tough, because it had a good deal of elevation gain for a pretty short hike, but the views of the falls was really nice. It ended up being one of our favorite hikes.
The Grove of the Patriarchs hike was super easy, but had a neat cable foot bridge at the beginning and a nice part of the river for Matilda to play in. Mabel had crashed out by this point, but woke up once we got to the end of the hike.
Matilda did the first half of the hike herself (most of which was uphill), but Jason carried her out in the pack on the way out.
We got to the cabin that evening and spent a little time exploring the river in the backyard before heading to bed.
The next morning, we got to watch the elk in the yard before Mabel scared them off by knocking on the window.
Oh, I've failed to mention, but Mabel's favorite part of the trip was all of the animals she saw. She enthusiastically yelled "DOG!!!" or "CAT!" at every animal she saw.
We didn't have a day 2 hike planned, but headed to the Paradise visitor center to see what they recommended.
Smoke was pretty heavy, and my legs were sore from the day before, so we didn't hike the full Sunrise Trail loop (5 miles) that's pretty popular. Instead, we did the shorter Dead Horse trail up to view the glacier and part of the Sunrise Trail back down.
The trail was pretty steep, but mostly paved, and ended up having decent views of the mountain.
Oh, and we saw plenty of marmots, which I was pretty excited about.
And Matilda was excited because there was a small bit of snow she got to play in at the top of the hike.
Mabel was equally as happy to play in the dirt while we ate our picnic lunches.
On day 3, we decided to take our chances and do the Tipsoo Lake/ Naches Peak trail (3.5 miles). It was a really pretty hike, which wound through alpine meadows, past a few lakes, and ended with some beautiful views of the mountain.
About of the third of the way in, there was a small swimming lake which Matilda took full advantage of. There was a mom hiking with her 5 kids (ages ranged from 10 years old to 18 months), and Matilda made special friends with the 4 year old. They all had a great time playing in the small lake.
We ate our picnic about 1/2 way through the hike, with views of Dewey Lake below. I had read that this was a popular stopping point because of the views, but I wish we had waited another 1/4 mile to round the peak to a flatter section that had nice views of the mountain.
Mabel napped for about 30 minutes on the hike out. Matilda was only in the carrier for about 5-10 minutes. The other family ended up catching up with us again and Matilda finished the hike with the other 4 year old girl. They also had fun picking hundreds of huckleberries that lined the trails. It was pretty darn cute.
Our last day was an 11 hour travel day (2.5 hours in the car and the rest in the airports and flights), but we survived.
It was a really great trip, and I'm really happy I got to spend a whole week away with Jason and the kids.
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