43rd Stop - Mt. Rainier, WA

Blog Post #54 - Written March 6, 2026

Stay: August 24-26, 2025

If you needed a place on Earth to remind you of the infinite beauty and awe-inspiring power of God, Mt. Rainier would be it.  Whether at our campground at the base of the mountain or hiking the trails around it, I felt so remarkably humbled.  

We drove into Mt. Rainier National Park and pulled off to a fabulous overlook.  The mountain was snowcapped in the background, and the valley below was perfectly echoic.  And so we enjoyed a few moments of shouting at the top of our lungs.  

We had a couple of hikes we planned to do, but decided to explore most of the little pit stops along the path.  We passed this glacial white waterfall and flipped a U-Turn to go check it out.  The water flowed down massive boulders until it fell down the rock face into a churning waterfall.  The cliff face alongside the waterfall was warped from higher water flow.  We followed the rocks down to the falls biggest descent, even stretching across the narrow gap above a flat section of the river to get to the other side.  

Our next stop was alongside a bridge over another glacial stream.  We could barely see the river below, it was so far down, but the top of the falls was just under the bridge.  We climbed down and found our favorite things: water, sand, rocks, and blackberries!  We stuck our feet in the glacial water ...BRRR!... and made fun sand drawings.  On our way out, we even found some raccoon prints.  

The next hike was to two lakes with pristine waters.  After talking to a few hikers, we headed to Snow Lake first.   Without breaking step, Q goes charging in and dives into the lake.  I don't think he realized quite how cold it was and came up sputtering haha.  We all made it in eventually, although D only up to her knees (can't blame her, it was COLD!).  I had mocked the idea of jumping in freezing cold water, so I had only brought swim bottoms.  But it was such a pretty opportunity, I decided I would regret it if I didn't get in.  So after making a makeshift swimsuit, I also dived in.  We enjoyed drying off in the sun shine and catching tadpoles in the shallow muddy section.

The hike to Bench Lake was starting to get late enough in the day that the sun was starting to cast shadows across the shoreline.  Gary and I took turns swimming across to the other bank to enjoy the beautiful views of Mt. Rainier.  The kids swam in the shallows and ate all the trail mix.

We ended our adventures on the mountain at the visitor center/lodge.  We got there right as it was closing, but we walked to some of the lower vistas.  We were amazed at how many wedding photographers were there, hogging all of the nice viewpoints.  Gary had gone to explore "just a bit further" while I started down with the kids.  We suddenly heard excited voices behind us and turned to see the little behind of a massive marmot scurrying into the grasses.  Gary had been right next to it as it crossed the path and snagged some sweet pictures.  

The vistas were so stunningly beautiful, maybe even worthy of being included in our family's annual calendar!  Hint, hint Richard ;)

Again, so pretty!

We chatted the next morning with one of our neighbors at our campground who let us know of a cool river that wasn't too far away.  After a slightly sketchy drive, we made it to a wonderful swimming hole surrounded by woods.  It was a rocky beach and we built rock towers, cliff jumped, and swam in the frigid river.  We even found a Caddisfly Larva building its armor. We eventually left and ate some BBQ from a roadside stand that had come early for the Packwood Flea Market, a semi-annual 4-day event that draws thousands of visitors to this tiny town every Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Luckily we left before the hoards arrived!