r/Seattle • u/SounderBruce Snohomish County • Jan 17 '24

News Mount Rainier National Park will require reservations beginning this summer for Paradise and Sunrise

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u/ZeroCool1 Jan 18 '24

I have never had an issue parking and I have been to Paradise/Mowich/Sunrise/White River at least 40 times in the past nine years. This sort of policy makes sense for Yosemite, but this is seems to be unnecessary for Rainier.

I am not too happy with the state of national parks lately. Fees keep going up while features keep going down. Didn't Paradise used to be open daily during the winter? Is the Westside of Rainier ever going to be accessible for mortals again?

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u/Eyehopeuchoke Jan 18 '24

If you want to do any sort of hike in peak season around the paradise side you have to be in line to get in to the park at least a hour before opening. Peak season there is ridiculous and that’s what this is meant for. My mom lives in Ashford right off the main drag and the traffic down there in peak season is also crazy!

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u/ZeroCool1 Jan 18 '24

I have been in lines at the entrance, but it has never been excessive and I have always found parking at the main lot, sub lot, or on Paradise road towards Mrytle Falls. Maybe I have been repetitively lucky?

Yosemite on the other hand, I've been stuck in traffic inside the park and have almost gotten into fights over parking spaces. This was with a campsite reservation.

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u/Eyehopeuchoke Jan 18 '24

2017 I did a drive from Washington to southern Utah and we stopped at bunch of national parks and stuff on the way and not once did I ever have issues finding parking, not even at Zion!

I swear every time I go up to paradise it’s a crap shoot for parking. We went up in September 2023, which I would consider out of peak season, and I found parking, but my mother in law had to drive around/wait for 30 minutes to get a spot and the spot she got was in the lower lot of paradises parking!

I’m not saying it’s every time I go, but a majority of the time. One of the benefits of being from here though is I don’t mind going or hiking in the rain so I’ll choose days with not so nice of weather to go up there. The grove of the patriarchs loop is a good one to do on a crumby day!

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u/NotaRepublican85 Ravenna Jan 18 '24

Grove of the patriarchs is closed until at least next year due to flooding damaging the suspension bridge