I had 2 days to explore Mt Rainier. On Sunday, the weather was perfect. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, I knew the park would be packed, but I wasn’t sure how packed since it’s not peak season for the park. I checked Google Maps every few hours to see how long it would take to get into the park and it was always 50-ish minutes, so I tried to wait it out. At around 3:30 pm, I decided to head out anyway, in case Google Maps was wrong. It turned out that it was wrong. There were so many cars trying to enter the park, that the wait would be 90 minutes. I stayed in line for 20 minutes in case it moved faster than expected, but then I turned around and went back to my Airbnb. Luckily, it’s just 10 minutes from the park entrance, so I could easily go back to the park later.

At around 6 pm, I noticed that there was no longer any wait, so I went to the park. I did the Bench & Snow Lakes hike, which was a shorter one. There were 2 deer on the trail that scampered into the trees when they saw me coming. On my way back, they were on the trail again and again, they scampered away. I felt bad for all the times the poor deer had to move off the trail with all the people coming and going. Bench Lake was nice, but Snow Lake was beautiful because of the ridge behind it. On the way back to the trailhead, I could see Mt Rainier in the distance. I was glad that it’s getting dark later these days so I could do an evening hike and still have daylight.

After the hike, I drove around the park. It was nice being there so late because there weren’t many people. Though I did see groups of people at key spots waiting to see the sunset. I tried to see as much of the park as possible while it was still light out. There were some really interesting clouds in the sky. I drove back to my cabin right after sunset so that I wouldn’t have to drive down the windy mountain roads in the dark.

When I got back, I had dinner and then got a big surprise. I found out that I had a little furry roommate. I thought I saw something running from the kitchen behind a couch, but when I moved the couch, I couldn’t see anything, so I figured I’d imagined it. A few minutes later, I saw movement again out of the corner of my eye and I saw a little mouse peeking out from behind the couch. I messaged my Airbnb hosts and they were very nice and apologetic. They said they had never seen a rodent in the cabin before and didn’t know how it got in and that they’d give me a credit and would come the next morning to set traps.

Having Stewart (that’s what I’m calling it) as a roommate is annoying. I’m constantly worried that Stewart is going to get in my food or poop on the dishes I use. So I put as much food as possible in my little cooler, since it’s harder to get into than my grocery bags and I’ve been washing all the dishes and kitchen utensils right before I use them. I wasn’t worried about hantavirus, but now that there’s a rodent in my life, I feel like I should at least be slightly worried. Hopefully Mt Rainier rodents aren’t infected. The national park air must be good for Stewart’s immune system.

I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night. I kept imagining Stewart crawling into bed with me. I know he’s more likely to spend the night in the kitchen than in my bed, but I’m not rational when I’m supposed to be sleeping. Even though I didn’t sleep enough, I woke up early to beat the crowds to the park. It was supposed to rain all afternoon, so if I wanted to hike, it had to be early. I left at 8 am and there was no wait to get into the park.

The whole drive, I kept going back and forth on which hike I should do. My original plan was to do a 5 mi hike, but looking at the pictures of the views, I realized I could do better. I decided to hike part of the Skyline trail. It’s the most popular trail in the park and it’s currently covered in snow. I wasn’t going to have time to do the whole loop before the rain started and I didn’t think my legs would survive the elevation gain, but I would go as far as I could. Then I started overthinking things. I was tired and it might not be good to do a harder hike when I hadn’t slept enough. It would be terrible to get caught in the rain at the top of the mountain. So I thought about doing an easier and shorter hike that also has a good view, though not as good as Skyline.

Last minute, I decided to drive past the parking lot where the trailhead for the shorter hike is and go to the Skyline trailhead instead. I would hike as far as I could before the rain started or my legs hurt too much from walking uphill in the snow. I had learned my lesson hiking Peyto Lake in Banff, so I put my hiking boots on and brought my hiking poles. Apparently, I didn’t learn the whole lesson because I didn’t put my spikes on my shoes, though I did put them in my backpack. Luckily, I saw people at the beginning of the trail putting spikes on and they convinced me that they’d be very useful in the snow. Spikes and poles were a game changer. It was so much easier and less slippery to walk in the snow. The views as I hiked were amazing. It was a winter wonderland.

I got to the Glacier Vista, which was the point at which I thought I would want to turn back. But once I was in the fresh air, I felt very awake and all my gear made the hike easier than I expected. I still had energy to keep going. I walked a little more, but then the wind really picked up. And it was a really cold wind. I decided to turn back. I wasn’t going to have time to make it to the next lookout point before the rain started and I’d be miserable walking in that wind. I felt so confident on my hike down with my spikes and poles. I was so grateful that I had them. I was also very grateful that I had chosen to do the Skyline hike. It put me in a good mood.

I drove through the park a little after my hike and saw some waterfalls I hadn’t had time to see the day before. Then I went back to my cabin and my roommate for a cozy day in. I was looking forward to hearing the rain outside while I read a book. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the rain until hours later and I only heard it for a few minutes. It did drizzle throughout the afternoon, but that was it.

As I finished writing the paragraph above, at around 9:47 pm PDT on Monday, May 25th, 2026, Stewart left this earth. I was writing, when I heard a trap go off a few feet away. The sound made me jump and my heart rate is only now slowing down, a few minutes later, after the startle of the noise and the anticipation of checking the trap. Part of me wanted to see a dead mouse there, but the other part of me didn’t want to see a dead mouse because that’s gross. There was indeed a dead mouse and it wasn’t as gross as I expected it to be. Both Stewart and I will be able to sleep in peace tonight, though Stewart will never wake up and I hopefully will. RIP Stewart.