Sledding at Paradise (Mt. Rainier)

Spring is slowly greening things up in the lowlands of Puget Sound (though the heavy rains just won't stop), but you don't have to go far up the mountains to reach plenty of snow.

This past Sunday we decided to finally make good on our promise to take the kids sledding and so drove up to Paradise on the side of Mt Rainier, elevation 5,400 feet, where there's presently about 18 feet of snow.

The Mountain peak itself was largely hidden behind clouds, but the area looked beautiful, none the less. And the rain/snow mix that had been falling ended conveniently just as we pulled into the parking lot.

August with the Tatoosh Range of mountains in the background. You can see how deep the snow is behind that car in the parking lot in the distance.

We had a good time sliding on the plowed runs they had made there, though our sleds were hard to steer. The grownups are in the front in these photos because it was much easier to steer straight that way. The kids were even big enough now to try sledding together for the first time, as you can see in the video below.