Motorcycle ride to Mt Rainier Paradise Visitor Center 2022-10-19





The Invisibilia podcast discussed Norwegian 'Slow TV'. I decided to make this entire trip all Slow TV videos, each video is the ride for the entire day.

For my last ride of the season I decided to go to the Mt Rainier Paradise visitors center. Usually by October it is raining and cold in the Pacific NorthWest, but the summer season decided to hang on a little while longer ... with the wildfires. The first little bit of the ride was in the fog, but that shifted to smoke for the rest of the ride where it looks hazy.

I started out from home working south and west planning on a counter clockwise ride around the mountain. Garmin had a different plan. When I set the route into the Garmin everything was good until I heard the dreaded "recalculating" words in my headset on highway 18. That is when Garmin decided that I needed to go clockwise around the mountain and directed me to make a U-Turn. Not a HUGE detour but frustrating. When I set my route I forget that I need to add in extra waypoints to keep Garmin on the path I want. The new route took me on to Highway 410 which leads to Chinook Pass. I love riding up in the mountains in the Washington State passes, clear day. Beautiful views. And I knew it would take me down Route 123. All nice twisty roads in the forest.

My first large glimpse of the mountain was looking west towards Mt Rainier:


I did a brief turn in at Stevens Canyon road, but it was closed for repairs. Before I left the house I had read that Stevens Canyon road was closed from the Mt Rainier Road Status page, but since I was tight there I checked again. There are also winter warnings and you should read this page before going any time of the year. The Gifford Pinchot National Forest had a large fire at the time, when I started coming back down Washington State Route 123 off Route 410 down to 12 the smoke started picking back up.

Another road I wanted to try in Packwood (but didn't have in the Garmin) is Forest Road 52/Skate Creek Road. While paved it is not maintained so next time I go up I plan to ride it but I will also heed the warnings that others have given about riding this road.

Stopped at the Mt Rainier Entrance Gate. Finally got up to Paradise parking lot and saw Mt Rainier up close and personal. With a saying from John Muir:


View of Mt Rainier just down the road from Paradise, beautiful:


I then went back West and North, back home after a nice (smokey) day of riding.


Motorcycle Trips


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Elevations for this ride so you can predict how cold you may get or if you may need to take breaks for altitude changes. Y Axis is altitude feet, X Axis is Miles travelled: