Mount Rainier National Park Travel Guide

Introduction

Paradise: 110 miles SE of Seattle, 70 miles SE of Tacoma, 150 miles NE of Portland, 85 miles NW of Yakima

At 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in Washington, and to the sun-starved residents of Seattle and south Puget Sound, the dormant volcano is a giant weather gauge. When the skies clear over Puget Sound, the phrase "The mountain is out" is often heard around the region. And when the mountain is out, all eyes turn to admire its broad, snow-covered slopes.

Those slopes remain snow-covered throughout the year due to the region's infamous moisture-laden air, which has made Mount Rainier one of the snowiest spots in the country. In 1972, the mountain set a record when 93 1/2 feet of snow fell in 1 year (and that record held until Washington's Mount Baker received 95 ft. in the winter of 1998-99). Such record snowfalls have created numerous glaciers on the mountain's flanks, and one of these, the Carbon Glacier, is the lowest-elevation glacier in the continental...