Paradise

The Mighty "Tahoma" and the Nisqually Glacier 

Figuring that this would be the last outdoor trip that Malia & I  would be able to do for awhile, a bunch of us took a snowshoeing trip up to Mt. Rainer last Sunday.    I'd been to the Paradise Meadows on the southwest flanks of the Mountain before, but no-one else had been.  Well, we were all in for a treat because we couldn't have asked for better weather and snow conditions!  Bluebird skies and excellent snow.  The temps were just slightly above freezing, too...perfect!

It was quite a journey to get up to the Mountain.  We all met at Ron & Katie's house at 8am and didn't make it to the parking lot until close to 11:30.  The road up to the Paradise parking lot was compact snow & ice but was sanded pretty well so there were only a few spots where we slipped a little.  We all piled out of the car and made our obligatory potty breaks and then got all geared up!

We made our way up the hill from the parking lot past all of the screaming kids hurtling down the sledding hills at near warp speed until we crested the ridge and stepped into the aptly named Paradise Meadows covered with about 6-8 feet of snow.

We all gawked around at the scenery and leisurely meandered up through the meadows to a nice spot to stop and have some lunch.  We also made tons of stops for pictures and to joke around.  Once we found a good spot for some lunch, I fired up the Jetboil to made some hot chocolate for everybody (Apple Cider for Malia) and get our hot lunch going.  I have always been a fan of having a hot lunch while out snowshoeing...it may take a little longer, but it makes the whole trip that much more enjoyable.  Plus, the Jetboil is small and effecient so it makes it even faster!  In no time I had everyone with hot chocolate in hand and a nice Chicken Veggie Curry with Couscous lunch for Malia and I.  Yum!

Once we all had enough to eat, we made our way north up towards the Nisqually Glacier Vista.  We spent a good deal of time eating lunch, messing around taking photos an whatnot so it was beginning to look like we weren't going to make it to our planned destination of Panorama Point.  We still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us to get back home.  It didn't matter though, everyone was having a good time just being out in such beautiful country on such a beautiful day!

We kept heading northeast towards Panorama Point and then just decided that we would turn around pretty soon and head back to the car for the long drive.  I had really wanted to make it out to the Point, but Ron and I settled instead on making a hard push ahead of everyone else for the lower Glacier Vista Highpoint instead.  Ron and I broke away from the pack and made a swift ascent up the remaining 500 feet to the highpoint.  I could tell that the rest of the group was getting ready to turn around so there wasn't much time to soak in the views from up top.  Man, they were pretty spectacular though!

We decided to take another, more adventurous, route back to the car and cut underneath the bottom of the main ridge into some deep fresh powder.  Well, on about the 3rd step down the slope Malia lost her footing and almost went headfirst into the snow!  It was nice and fluffy so she was fine and laughing her head off!  The rest of the trip went without incident and we piled back into the car for a stop for coffee and the long trip home.  It was a fantastic trip that I would like to do again, but as an overnight trip since the drive is so long.