We drove upwards to Paradise, which had a gorgeous visitor's center and all sorts of tourists. We checked in with a ranger to ask about the hike I wanted to do and away we went. There was a lot of snow on the mountain still and lots of wild flowers popping up. It was a stunning hike all the way and all the way down. This one was about 2.5 miles, with a 900' elevation gain. We hiked to the Glacier Vista and back down and made it a loop. It's the hiking that made this trip so worthwhile. Holly and Greta did so great doing 2 good sized hikes in one day.

Our first hike on our full day at Mount Rainier, was one we could get to without driving. We just had to fork right on the Nature Walk. It was a 2.7 mile loop, 300' elevation gain, with a beautiful waterfall. The girls worked on their Junior Ranger badges while we hiked. The forest was so lush and gorgeous. It was kind of magical. We originally planned to hike to the Grove of the Patriarchs as well, but decided to wait to do that one because I wanted to head up further into the park and onto Mount Rainier. So when we finished our hike, we went back to the campsite for lunch.

Our campsite was less than 5 minutes of a walk to the visitor's center and right behind the visitor's center was a little 0.4mile nature trail that walked us past a little stream and a natural hot springs. There were lots of labels for the plants so we were able to learn about some of those. It was so pretty. We did this on our first evening and it was just right.

I made my dream of visiting Mount Rainier National Park a reality. We camped at Ohanapecosh campsite for 2 nights and it was everything I wanted it to be! The hiking was perfection and because we left Maeve behind with friends, we slept at night (to the white noise of the rushing river), and enjoyed more freedom with our schedule. We had super kind campsite neighbors. We totally lucked out! It really truly was everything.

Strawberry picking at Greenbluff is a must do! The strawberries are these itty bitty things about the size of a thimble, but they are so sweet and flavorful! No other strawberries compare to these. We've picked fruit and berries of all sorts of variety lots of times with these friends. I love that they are such an integrated part of our lives.