It was a long, 7ish hour drive from Prospect, OR to Mineral, WA, since we had to sit in traffic a couple of times going through Portland. But at least the roads weren’t nearly as curvy or steep on this leg of the trip. We spent four nights at Elkamp Eastcreek Campground, about 20 minutes from the Nisqually Entrance Station for Mount Rainier National Park. Unfortunately, Sunrise Road had not opened yet due to snow, but we still needed two days to see most of the other popular spots in the park. It was nice to have a day between two days of hiking to rest, too!
DAY 1
On our first day, we drove the main road through the park, going through Longmire and Paradise areas and turning around near the Box Canyon Overlook. Since this would be the hottest and sunniest day of the three, we passed up several hikes at the lower elevation to head up higher. It was still low 80s, but better than high 90s! We had awesome views of Mount Rainier throughout the park, but it wasn’t the only sight worth seeing. There was a ton of fabulous sights steps from turnouts and parking lots, but we also did a couple of short hikes to see a bit more.
Our first stop was at Christine Falls, a quick stop from a small parking area with a short path to a spot that framed the 60 foot falls under a cool stone bridge. Then we made several stops at overlooks and turnouts to admire the views. Next, we hiked the steep, but short, out-and-back .2 mile trail to see Narada Falls. Then we finally made it into Paradise and it was crowded! We were able to get a parking spot in the lower lot, near the Nisqually Vista Trailhead, so we did that 1.2 mile lollipop loop and ate our picnic lunch while enjoying the spectacular views. We also found parking at the Visitor Center (Randy just made up a spot that wasn’t actually marked, but he was more out of the way than a lot of the other spots people made.); but we decided not to do any hikes from there, since it was starting to get late enough that we realized we would need a second day in the park to see and do everything we wanted. We continued driving north, pulling off whenever there was anything Randy wanted to get a better look at, including Reflection Lakes, Box Canyon Overlook (a short walking path to a bridge where we could look straight down the180-foot deep canyon to the rushing Cowlitz River.)
We turned around near the Entrance Station and started the 1.5 hour drive back to the RV. We had decided to stop back by the Visitor Center at Paradise to grab dinner then do the Myrtle Falls hike, but the food court had already closed. So, we went home and ate leftovers instead.
DAY 2
We took a day off from sight seeing and hung out at the beautiful campground one day. Besides washing dishes and cooking dinner, Randy and I both spent a few hours relaxing by the campground’s river, which was just steps from our site. It was flowing over rocks fast enough to make a pleasant waterfall noise — love it!! I would say that Elkamp was our favorite campground so far, with a spacious site with great views and no traffic noise or noisy neighbors.
DAY 3
We were REALLY glad we had seen Mount Rainier a couple of days before, since if we had only come this day, we would have seen clouds instead! Also, this was the longest line of cars we’ve had at an entrance station on this trip — we had to wait in line about 25 minutes before getting through, which I did not expect at 11 am on a Wednesday.
Our first hike was Twin Firs Trail that was supposed to be a 10 minute .5 mile loop. At the start of the trail, I saw the path to the right and the one to the left, and figured it didn’t matter which I chose since it was a loop. I went right and was surprised when we got to a section where we had to walk through small tree branches. I made the comment that it didn’t seem like many people used this trail — it must not be very popular; but we kept going. We eventually got to a spot where a fallen tree was along the path and could tell people had walked on it; but at that point, Randy checked his phone and saw that we were way off the trail, so we backtracked and went left at the beginning instead. We didn’t have to walk through branches or over fallen logs in that direction, haha. (The other end of the loop came out on the other side of the parking area.) It’s funny how well worn the non-trail path was — I’m surprised it hasn’t been roped off to prevent others from making the same mistake. Our 10 minute hike became 30 minutes, but it was still fun.
After that, we parked at Longmire and did the 3/4 mile Trail of the Shadows loop. Next was Carter Falls, which was more strenuous than most of the hikes we’ve done, at 2.8 miles out-and-back with a 660 feet elevation gain. It was interesting to get a different perspective of the Nisqually River by crossing over it on a log foot bridge. I guess the wide expanse of rocks that it flows through makes the river seem small and narrow, but it’s really a fast and roaring river up close. After crossing the river, the trail went uphill the entire time. We took a couple of quick breaks to rest our legs on the steepest parts. It was a nice hike, though — in the shade, with sounds of the rushing river beside us (even though we could see it in a lot of place). And it was a good glute workout! The waterfalls themselves were just ok, compared to so many others we’ve seen. Randy climbed down off the trail to get a better photo. The view I had was slightly obscured by a tree.
Then we drove back to Paradise, parked in a real parking space this time and ate a late lunch at their food court. After eating, we hiked the paved .8 mile trail, with a 185 foot elevation gain, up to Myrtle Falls. These falls were more interesting, with all the cascading it did. But the area was more crowded and not as peaceful. Still worth doing, though. And we continued the hike up to the top of a large hill beyond the falls to get a really nice view of the mountain range. This was the last thing on our Rainier to-do list, so we headed back to the RV from here, with a quick stop to fuel up for the next leg of our trip tomorrow!
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