Paradise Glacier Trail

The Paradise Glacier Trail follows a historic route established in the 1920s when the Paradise Glacier extended far enough downslope to be easily accessible to park visitors on guided ice tours, offering a sobering and visually powerful lesson in the reality of glacier retreat alongside exceptional high-alpine scenery. The trail begins at Paradise, already one of the most flower-rich meadow environments in the Cascades, and climbs above the main visitor trail network into the crevassed terrain of the upper Paradise Glacier basin. What was once a broad, accessible glacier is now a much diminished snowfield and ice remnant, with the retreat measurable in hundreds of feet per decade. Historic photographs posted at the trailhead document the dramatic change since the trail was first blazed. The upper section crosses permanent snowfields that require careful footing and may necessitate microspikes even in late summer. The rewards are extraordinary: the southeast face of Rainier looms directly above, and the views across the Tatoosh Range to Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens are spectacular. Ptarmigan in white summer plumage are frequently seen on the rocky benches near the snowfields. The Paradise Glacier Trail is one of the most emotionally resonant hikes in the national park system, combining natural grandeur with a living record of climate-driven landscape change.