10 Best Things to do in Mount Rainier in 2025! (Top Spots & Hidden Gems)

I spent the last three days exploring as much as I could around Mount Rainier, and today I'm going to share with you my top 10 favorite things that I did. My name is Matt with We're in the Rockies, and me and my wife, we write travel guides to help people travel to the west. So the first thing is this Mount Fremont Fire Tower Lookout. So this is a hike in the sunrise section of Mount Rainier. It's about a little over five miles, I believe, and it was one of the more spectacular hikes I've ever been on. I really enjoyed it. There are some uphill sections. It's probably considered strenuous. You do about 900 feet of climbing, I think. There's a ridge that you walk on where you have this incredible valley view, these rivers and lakes. And then you go on this really interesting side hill, this ridge that's rocky, just sheer drops. It's pretty intense. I was actually kind of keeping my eyes on the trail for much of it because I'm not a huge fan of heights, and this thing was just dropping off the face. So that was a really interesting hike. And when you get to the end, there's a fire tower there that they used to use to look out for fires and try to catch them early so they could put them out early. And once you get to the fire tower, you can walk around the little deck on the fire tower. You can't go inside of it, but it's kind of a cool little photo op, and it's perched on this point where you have these just insane panoramic views of the Cascade Mountains and Mount Rainier. That was really quite an experience. I really enjoyed that a lot. It was a lot of work, but it was a great hike, and that was my favorite thing I did at Mount Rainier. Okay, next up is Tipsu Lake. This is a gorgeous little lake in a meadow. I just thought this was spectacular. It's not a really long stop necessarily, but oh man, just walking around the lake, it was full of wildflowers everywhere, and it was so great. I just saw so many other people there. They were just so happy taking their photos with the wildflowers and the reflection of Mount Rainier in the lake. That was one of the cooler spots that I visited over the last three days. I really enjoyed Tipsu Lake. Okay, kind of near Tipsu a little bit on that east side is a place called Crystal Mountain. This is actually not inside Mount Rainier National Park. It is a ski resort, and it's the largest ski resort in Washington from my understanding, and what's cool about it is you can take their gondola ride to the top. A little expensive for the gondola ride, I think, but I did like it for a couple of reasons. First of all, when you get to the top, the views of Mount Rainier from the top of that ridge are insane. I mean, you really cannot beat those views. From there, you can see Mount Rainier and the White River as it's carved this huge valley down through the mountains and all that. Now, here's what's cool about Mount Rainier. It's over 14,000 feet high. Now, Colorado has several mountain peaks that are over 14,000 feet high, like 58 of them, I think. California has some, so there's some 14,000 footers in the lower 48 states, but Mount Rainier is the most prominent of all of those, so that means from floor to peak, it's over 13,000 feet, meaning it's almost at sea level and goes all the way up to the 14,000. The Colorado ones, they're already starting at 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, and then they go up to 14,000, so they don't appear to be quite as imposing when you're there, but this view from Crystal Mountain shows Mount Rainier in all its glory from bottom to top. It's really an incredible view and was worth the gondola ride for that, and then the other thing that I liked is when you get up there, they have this little building called the Summit House, just a little restaurant where it has indoor and outdoor seating. I got the whiskey river barbecue sandwich, and you can just sit there. They have Adirondack chairs. You can just sit there and enjoy the views. Just a little tiny thing with some of the best views you'll ever see in your life, so that was pretty cool. A little spendy, but I would say overall probably worth it. Not a must-do, but worth the ride if you want to do it. Okay, next up is a little place called Box Canyon, so this is kind of a cool stop because when I stopped, I noticed they had this bare rock there and a little sign on it that said this rock was smoothed over by a glacier, and I thought it was kind of interesting, and then as I walked the trail, I noticed the whole hillside was like that and had all been smoothed over by a glacier and rounded off, and then it was kind of moss covered, and then, you know, you get to the bridge and you look straight down this gorge. They call it Box Canyon, and it's really deep. I don't know how deep it is, but it was awesome. It reminded me a lot of Moline Canyon in Jasper National Park in Canada, a fantastic canyon. So really cool to look all the way down into a gorge like that. Okay, next up is something that probably won't make a lot of lists out there, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, so I want to tell you about it. This is the Paradise Inn Lodge in the Paradise section of Mount Rainier. Okay, this is a historic lodge built in 1917 by the Mount Rainier Park Company. This is in the days, like the early days of tourism in the national parks, when these places had to build up lodging inside the parks because, you know, the automobile, it wasn't really doable to drive in there with an automobile. Most people didn't have one, and so they had to build lodging on site, essentially. And they were trying to attract people to the park, so they were trying to build fancy lodges. I'm so grateful for that time period for giving us some of the best gem lodges. What's cool is they have all this interesting log work in the main floor of the lobby. This log piano that's just insane with these little turrets and stuff like that, I thought it was great. He carved these throne chairs that you could sit in, again with these pointy turrets on it. The grand clock is insane. Man, just so many really cool intricate carvings. I absolutely love that. And then hanging up overhead are these lamps, and they're called the wildflower lamps because they all have paintings of wildflowers on them. And so they actually have little stories behind them, all these creations inside the lodge. I really thought that was fascinating, like totally worth stepping in there and checking out. They have little pamphlets that you can grab from the front desk and kind of go around and learn about them. So take the time there, you know, you can hang out in the lodge a little bit, you can get some food and eat on the deck. Paradise Inn Lodge was a fun discovery for me. I like checking out these old hotels. That was one of the ones I enjoyed the most. Okay, if you're visiting Mount Rainier, I have made a few other videos on this. And if you're visiting Mount Rainier and you need a game plan to see the park, we have a step-by-step itinerary that covers two to three days in Mount Rainier. So check that out to see if it looks like a good fit for you. It's on our website at whereintherockies.com. Okay, next step is the Trail of the Shadows. So this is in the Longmire section of the park. And I thought this was just going to be a dumb forest walk. Now I'm not like a forest lover. I am in Utah and we have like wide open vistas there. We don't have like heavy forests. And so I like to have the views. I like to look out and see things. So when I'm walking through a forest, a lot of times for me, it's hard to get excited about that. But we're in the Pacific Northwest. They do have large forests here, like big broad leaf, you know, plants and canopies and things like that. And of course, big, large trees, pine trees, Douglas and all that stuff, cedars and things like that. But I also found that this trail had a lot more variety that I had no idea. So like the first guy that kind of settled in, in Mount Rainier National Park, he actually opened a hot springs there. And you can see evidence of where they had created these resort area. And like the still, the water is like bubbling out of the ground right there. The most of the hotels have been torn down, but there's like a historic cabin there that is interesting. So you learn a little bit about the history of it, which I like. And then the trail had crazy variety. Like it had a little wetlands area, a meadow, the forest, big fallen trees. You know, I don't want to build it up too much. It is just like a short little walk, but I quite enjoyed that trail. And then it's in the Longmire section. So it's right there by the National Park Inn. This is not as fancy as the Paradise Inn, but it was one of these old historic lodges to serve travelers. As they entered the park, you could still stay there. They served dinner there. That whole area is actually a national historic. It's kind of interesting. The oldest, one of the oldest museums in the National Park Service is there. A big, huge cedar tree that they've done a cross section on and they've put things on the tree rings to show a timeline of events. So all that's pretty interesting. They have a suspension bridge nearby that you can walk over and see the river. Anyway, kind of a quirky little area, but really cool. I liked the Tree of the Shadows in the Longmire area. Okay, next up is the Skyline Trail. This is a famous trail in the Paradise section. The trail is a famous trail and it goes through wildflowers and boulders and rivers. You see glaciers and it's really quite a spectacular trail, but it's pretty much straight uphill for two and a half miles. You go up about 1,700-1,800 feet and then you got to come down the knee crunching hill after that. So for me, it wasn't an enjoyable hike. Only putting it on the top 10 because you do need to know about it and the views were definitely top 10. It's a really cool area, but if you want to do it, just make sure you're in shape and you're prepared. Start doing those stair climbers right now to get ready for that thing. Okay, next up is Stevens Road. This road enters from the east side of the park and goes to Paradise. I was blown away by this road. It's kind of similar to Glaciers Going to the Sun Road where you're going through tunnels and you have wildflowers and you have steep, steep canyon drop-offs and some switchbacks. I mean, this was a spectacular drive. There's like little waterfalls and rivers that it crosses over. Oh my gosh, I just love this drive. It's kind of an intense, a little bit scary drive if you don't like hikes like that, but really a fantastic ride. Stevens Canyon Road. Okay, going along with that, my next one is the Mather Memorial Parkway. So this is something fascinating I found out. First of all, Stephen Mather was the first director of the National Park Service and he died. And about like the year after he died, they were building this road through the mountains. So they named it in his honor, the Mather Memorial Parkway, which is kind of cool. He's like the father of the National Park Service, played a huge, huge role. Anyway, the road is now considered an all-American road. Now, I looked this up last year to figure out what this means and I found out that there's like a national designation for scenic byways and then for all-American roads. All-American roads are so scenic and spectacular. And so this is Washington's only all-American road. This is the Mather Memorial Parkway. And this had some incredible switchbacks. Oh my goodness, it was just, it had a climb to the top that was very similar to glaciers going to the Sun Road as well. Just an incredible experience. That was awesome. Okay, next up is just waterfalls. Okay, so as you can imagine with a huge tall mountain like that and all that prominence that is running down and it has glaciers, it has several glaciers on that mountain. So those are all, you know, releasing rivers and stuff. They have carved some fantastic formations and they are coming down that mountain in the form of waterfalls all over the place. Myrtle Falls is a very popular waterfall with the bridge that goes over it. It's awesome. Also, Narada Falls and again another bridge. Those are two really, really nice waterfalls but you're going to see several cascades and waterfalls as you go throughout the park. If you're a waterfall lover, Pacific Northwest is such a great spot to come. Before I came to Mount Rainier, I did the Columbia River Gorge where it was like all waterfalls all day long. If you like waterfalls, Pacific Northwest is a good spot for you. All right, last up is the Nisqually Glacier and River. So this is like the main formation on the west side of Mount Rainier. It releases all the water and this is the Nisqually River and it is a major, major thing here on the west side of Mount Rainier and has carved this massive canyon and gorge through the landscape. So you'll see this quite a bit as you drive on the main road in Mount Rainier. I really enjoyed going down to the river and crossing over. There's like a little bridge that you can cross over. You kind of scramble around the rocks and get real close to the river. That was great. Just seeing that river, I thought that was really cool. The river and the glacier together. Just a major formation on Mount Rainier. I'm going to give you a bonus one here and that's just something I did this morning. It's the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. This is on the west side of the park in a little town called Elby, I think. This is a really nice ride. It goes through the forest. It goes over the Nisqually River. You get views of Mount Rainier. You get the river, the forest, other mountains. That's a pretty nice ride. I think it was pretty affordable, if I remember right. I would say it gives you a nice little variety for your trip. That Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. Okay, I've made another video all about the mistakes of visiting Mount Rainier. Check that out next. Thank you so much for watching. Until next time, go ask a drunk traveler.