WHAT'S NEW IN THE 5th EDITIONWith the second consecutive update inviting you to the wonders of Rainier in full color, the 5th edition is more user-friendly than ever, with improved layout, graphics, charts, full-color photographs, and wheelchair accessibility information.
Continuing to refine an upgrade made to the 4th edition, we’ve provided information for turning a day visit to hike in the park into a multiday getaway, including insider knowledge about campgrounds and lodging in and around Mount Rainier National Park.
Whether your stay at Rainier will be a single day or much longer, you’ll appreciate trail triage tips that include extensive “Best” lists and suggestions that point you toward specific trails for specific conditions, experiences, hiking companions, or allotted time.
Some of the most important changes since the previous edition involve getting into the park itself: As noted in the introduction, Mount Rainier in Spring 2024 announced a new summertime reservation system.
Other upgrades are distinctly aimed at accessibility, with new denotations of trails accessible by mobility devices, further enabling adaptive bikers and other adventurous spirits to get into the woods. While there are no fully accessible (ADA-compliant) trails at Mount Rainier National Park, the park has some trails that, to some extent, are doable by wheelchair. Before you head out, be sure to check with staff at the nearest ranger station or visitor’s center to plan for trail slope, grade, width, surface and condition, along with any barriers like downed trees, foot bridges or stairs making the trail inaccessible for wheelchair users.
While we’re talking about wheels: We’ve also updated the guide to recognize the growing popularity of mountain, electric and gravel biking. Starting with the 4th edition, we noted that roads closed to vehicular traffic have lengthened, by miles, access to some of the park's classic day-hike trailheads. We left most of those trails in the guide, in anticipation of more and more folks flocking to them as a combined bike/hike experience. This was a good call. Since then, the growth of different types of outdoor cycling has turned this development even more into a silver lining: roads converted to bike-to-hike trails have brought more diverse groups of recreational enthusiasts to the park. Cyclists—mountain, electric and gravel types—can ride these wide, graded hike-bike trails within park boundaries as the prelude (and postscript) to a hike or just a ride itself alongside a creek or up to a scenic vista. Just remember that wheeled riding on Mount Rainier National Park's hiking-only trails is not permitted.
Beyond that, some other good news. In this space with the 4th edition, we rejoiced over recovery in the park from devastating flooding in 2003 and 2006, with torrents that took away entire trails and even a popular campground. We’re happy to report that no such devastating weather impacted access to the park in the years leading up to this 5th edition.
One exception is notable: High water in 2021 claimed the bridge leading to the magical old-growth forest in the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail, cutting off access to the highlight portion of that
classic Northwest day hike, which, because of funding schedules, may not be fully restored until 2026 or beyond. We’ve left the trail description in this guide with the expectation and hope that it will be repaired, and access restored. (In the short term, we’ve taken this hike out of “best” listings for now in case our hopes are not realized.)
Another exception is worth considering: National Forest Service Road 59 has closed due to numerous large washouts. At press time, this has cut off primary access to the Lake George, Goat Lake and Glacier View hikes (Hikes 8, 9, 10). The Forest Service has promised repairs likely beginning in summer 2025. Check with the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District office before you go.
As always, there’s no guarantee that rapid change won’t occur without warning on Mount Rainier. It is, lest we forget, is a slumbering volcano that could decide on several moments’ notice to simply eliminate itself from the landscape. It will never be stable. But the sort of flooding, mudslides, wildfires, and other predicaments that caused major trail damage, then rebuilding, around the park in past years has been delightfully mostly absent since the previous edition of this guide. The landscape in succeeding years has actually seen some remarkable healing—the sort of slow-creeping regrowth that can only occur in nature with help from the hands of time.
Please note also that Mount Rainier Park has now gone farther out of its way to note that two preferably unrelated activities: flying drones of any kind and partaking in usage of recreational marijuana, are forbidden inside the park.
The meat and potatoes of this or any guide—trails and their current conditions—have been thoroughly rechecked. But with a nod to the climate-related damages noted above, we encourage visitors to check in with the park and various hiking websites for any short-term conditions of concern.
Contact information in the guide has also been verified, with web links and X (Twitter) feeds added where appropriate.
As always, we appreciate your help in keeping the guide current. Feedback to the authors from readers suggests this guide has proven a useful tool to many hikers, whether longtime park users
or first-time visitors. For that we are grateful, and please know that your suggestions and updates are always welcome.
Copyright © 2025 by Ron C. Judd. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
