[Trip Report] Mt. Rainier, February 2023
Here’s something you should know about me and Ryan: we have different attitudes towards snow. For me, growing up in Ohio, I’ve seen enough snow to last me my whole life. I’d be okay if I never saw snow again. But to Ryan, snow is exotic and beautiful. Snow is a “Christmas miracle,” fun to play and drive in, or even something you should seek out on vacation. Not an environmental hazard that stacks up on the side of the road and turns into a nasty slush. Weird, right? Or maybe you agree.
For a few years, we’ve talked about how cool it would be to have a relaxing winter getaway in a snowy, remote cabin. Ideally with a hot tub and a wood stove. This year, we finally got around to it, and I think we’ll go back to the mountains again soon.
There are a lot of beautiful mountain destinations in western Washington. Mt. Rainier in particular has a lot of cabins and little resorts surrounding the national park. I discovered the top-rated Betsy’s Cabins, which had all of our desired amenities (outdoor hot tub, grill, fire pit, wood stove for heat, gas stove inside). I’d highly recommend these cabins for your own Mt. Rainier trip. If you go during winter, keep in mind that some of the most popular areas of the park (like Paradise) will be closed. The parks will also require you to carry snow chains with you (but not necessarily have them on).
You can see all of the photos from this trip here.
Day 1
We loaded up the car with a cooler full of food and some grocery bags of nonperishables and left Seattle in the late afternoon - budgeting for buffer so we could get Taco Time on the road. The drive itself was just under 2 hours. We lost cell service as we approached the park, which made it difficult to find the cabin.
We had booked the Serenity A-Frame for this trip. It is small but well-appointed, with a full kitchen, large bathroom, and loft bedroom with a pull-down ladder. They also had little gifts for us, like a pocket knife, corkscrew, and tote bag.
Dinner for night 1 was beer brats on the grill. We drank rosé wine and gin cocktails, and had hot chocolate later in the night. For entertainment, we played music and enjoyed the hot tub, and when we were bored with the hot tub, we availed ourselves of the DVD collection and watched The Devil Wears Prada.
Day 2
We kept the itinerary light and relaxing, and we started our day with some brunch (bacon, eggs, and toast) in the cabin. Since much of the park is closed in winter, we went to the closest section: Longmire. There wasn’t any snow on the ground near our cabin, but as we drove towards the park we noticed more and more snow.
At Longmire, there are a bunch of exhibits detailing the history of the park. We looked around at the exhibits - the most interesting ones were about the area’s history as a medical spa and natural hot springs. While we were there, we asked the guide about trails. We decided to attempt a more “moderate” trail, which would give us a beautiful view of the surrounding park, but we quickly discovered it was too hard to traverse without snowshoes and involved a lot of walking uphill. It was already getting dark, so we went back down and took a .5 mile loop with more exhibits and informational plaques.
We went back to the cabin to make dinner. We tried to bake potatoes over a campfire, which took a couple of tries. We kept the first potatoes on for an hour and they burned to a crisp! We tried about half as much time and they turned out perfect. The fire-baked potatoes went great with our grilled New York strips and veggie skewers. We enjoyed the hot tub again, and our DVD movie choice for night 2 was Frozen.
Day 3
We didn’t make breakfast in the cabin before we left, just tidied and packed up. Instead, we went to the Copper Creek Inn, which I was excited to visit after passing by the “Copper Creek” villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. We just missed the end of breakfast, so we got lunch food instead in the mostly-empty restaurant. The gift shop had local wine and jam, so we picked up some of each. Our drive home was uneventful and our cats were happy to see us!