<< Mount Rainier - The Skyline Trail - Part 1

09/26/23 - Mount Rainier - Nerada Falls

We still haven't made it up to the high country of Olympic National Park. Between the destruction of the lodge, the subsequent limits on visitors, the bad air from forest fires, and forest fire and mountain lion attack related closures, we have more or less given up. Now, they are demolishing the ruins of the lodge and the area has been closed for a period, yet again.

So, we visited Mount Rainier back in late August, and returned more recently to explore some more. This time we stayed just outside the park, and this time it rained. Actually, it snowed. We didn't make it all the way up to Paradise. There were too many snow covered cars coming down. The rain was heavy where we were, and we had no desire to drive through wet snow to see the heavy fog that would be blocking any view of the mountain. Instead, we decided to cut our losses and see some of the waterfalls along the way.

We stopped at Nerada Falls and made our way down to the view point. We could hear the falls even from the parking lot. They were in full force and rain fed. We followed the trail down to the falls overlook. It was green forest and gray mists accented with bits of brightly colored fall foliage.


The back yard at our cabin, one of Betsy's

The trail to Nerada Falls

More of the trail

Lots of foliage and running water

Our first glimpse of the falls

More greenery

More of the falls

Plenty of water

Plenty of mist

Another falls view

More mist in the forest

A bit of color

The falls below

Keywords: high country, waterfall, mount rainier