An October Ride to Paradise
It was a gloriously sunny fall day. One last excuse to exercise the little Aston before winter fully set its cold and ugly claws into the landscape. It’s unusual for a day like this to land on a weekend, so an early start becomes essential to avoiding most of the inevitable crowds that will descend upon Mt. Rainier National Park. I leave Seattle’s southwest suburb of Burien a couple minutes after seven, thinking I’ll be driving the back road of SR 7 through the Park and all the way south to Morton and back. By the time I reach Elbe, where the decision to head south must be made, I realize that’ll be too long a trek for today. Traffic is already building and I need to be back before three for a family function. So, it’s to Paradise we go!
Paradise and its 1930s era lodge is the western terminus in Mt. Rainier National Park. It usually bears the brunt of the park’s visitors, as one can easily recognize by the long backup, even when I arrive at 9am with my lifetime senior park pass after the 2-hour journey. The parking lots are already nearly full on this brisk 42 degree morning. The sun’s radiant heat makes the day seem much warmer. Coupled with the rare absence of any wind, people are walking the trails in shorts and t-shirts. Not what I would normally recommend for a fall day at a base elevation of 5,600 feet in the PNW. But, hey, I’m not complaining.
The drive turns heavily forested long before the park. By La Grande and Alder Lake, you’re caught up in the deep forest beauty of 120-foot firs and cedars right up to the fog line while trying to negotiate this two-lane road and its constant turns. They’re so dense and so tall they easily obliterate even that clear, bright sunlight dazzling down from above. It’s magnificent.
The trails of the park from Paradise are so heavily used many of them are actually paved with asphalt. Not exactly what the purist hiker is expecting, but most of these people are casual day walkers, so the trails near and around the lodge fall into what most of them are looking for.
This is a nostalgic trip for me, as I recall coming here as a boy. Many of these roads have a 1930s WPA origination and feel to them. The finely fitted rock guardrails along the cliff side of the roads and pullouts were all there when I was small, some 65 years ago. The lodge has been refurbished and still houses rooms to rent. It’s classic PNW rustic log architecture, much like what you’ll find two hundred miles south at Timberline Lodge on the shoulder of another Northwest volcano, Mt. Hood. If you enjoy craftsmanship and history, there is nothing not to like here. This place exudes all of it.
So, if you’re looking for a beautiful drive that will allow you to spend some time in a national park and get you back home in less than eight hours, this is it. Fun drive, beautiful scenery, silent walks – a lovely combination for an enthusiast of any one of the three. Cheers!
