My paradise

Each family has the decision early on to decide what they value. For us, we have always valued our Saturdays as a chance to dismiss our worries, abandon all weekday responsibility and to venture outside. On this particular weekend, we deemed it appropriate to round out this season of snowshoeing with a bang.

For those of you who do not know, our Winter was really just Spring in a disguise. Since we never fully saw Winter this year our snowshoeing attempts inevitably turned into early Spring hiking trips. Having pondered this lately, we knew there was one place we could go for snow and that was Mount Rainier.

Once we were there I felt awe struck by the peaks, the clear blue sky and the sheer beauty of the snow. No matter how many times I go to Mount Rainier it continues to feel like a magical place. To be able to have a view like this while eating lunch is priceless to me.

The clear skies allowed us the opportunity to see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier all at once.

Mt. Rainier looks deceivingly close when you are up at Paradise, it appears to be easy to access and totally doable as a day hike, but we know differently.

The snow was a bit slushy, there were more people around than we would have liked, but the higher we went the more the crowds thinned out and by crowds we were probably talking thirty people. Oh how spoiled we have become!!