Skyline Trail Loop and Panorama Point

The wildlife gates are shut and I really wanted to get some fall color photos in the high country.  

Honestly I’m not in good enough shape to do any of my normal late fall hikes such as Wagon Wheel or Mount Rose.  The Hamma Hamma road is still closed as well. 

Mount Rainier is open to cars all year and is a two hour drive from home.  I teamed up with my daughter and away we went.

I drug us both up the Skyline Trail.  She might have been in worse shape than me, it was a work out for both of us.  

We live at Sea level and the trail starts at over 5,000 feet.  When acclimating to high elevations it is recommended to do it by 5,000 feet at a time.  We ended up at over 7,000 feet, so we were breathing hard, but it was so worth it!

On our hike we saw a marmot, a deer, several chipmunks, a few pika  and a bear!  

We also saw a ton of  mushrooms along the trail.  But with it being a National Park we were limited, but not  as limited as I thought.  The limit is one gallon each, where in Olympic National Park the limit is one quart.  

Still you never know if the rangers know the actual mushroom harvest rules in their own parks.  There is at least one ranger out there who is on a crazy vendetta and doesn’t even know his own park rules.

We had a great time at Rainier and the crowds were not too bad, since we were there on a weekday and luckily we just happened to hike in the opposite direction as almost everyone else.

5.5 miles with 1,600 feet elevation gain