Patty

Depends on what part of the park but figure at least 3 hours from SEA.

elnap29

Personally, I'd want more time for a trip to Olympic or to Seattle/San Juans/ Vancouver. Those destinations involve a lot of travel for only 4 days.

Could you fly to Sacramento? Then you could drive 2 hrs to Lake Tahoe for hiking, biking and views, or drive to a nearer point in the Sierras. September is a great month to go to Nevada City in the foothills - lots of great hiking and swimming along the Yuba River.

An alternative would be a flight to Las Vegas with a drive to Zion National Park ( about 2 1/2 hrs, though) but you could also stop at Valley of Fire for incredible walks/views/ picnic, spend the night in Mesquite or St George and then on to Zion through Springdale.

You definitely have a pile of suggestions from everyone here.

kittygirl

We sure could fly to Sacramento, at least we used to be able to fly direct from PHL.
Love the idea of Tahoe.

Have been to and just loved Zion.

More to research, thanks for the info on time for the prior destinations.
Thanks!

kittygirl

So we cannot fly direct to Sacramento, we are now looking at Mt Rainer, thoughts on this as compared to Olympic? Mt. St. Helens, etc all look great and we do think we can get a lot in quickly if we plan as we did previously.....
We will just go back if we love it!

tomfuller

Check to see if you can fly to Reno. It's even closer to Tahoe.

kittygirl

We are a bit conflicted about Tahoe, which side to visit, etc.
Any thoughts?
Scenery as spectacular as Mt Rainer?

sf7307

I adore Lake Tahoe, and am heading up there soon myself, but I avoid the developed South Shore. We always stay north shore, although we bike on the west shore, and often take a drive on the east shore. I think the scenery is spectacular, and the hiking is fantastic. How far do you like to hike each day - there are many many 5-7 mile hikes (Shirley Lake at Squaw, Five Lakes near Alpine, Mt. Judah near Sugar Bowl, Emerald Bay, parts of the Tahoe Rim Trail, etc.).

If you just google the words "Emerald Bay", the picture that comes up at the upper right of the screen will give you a good idea what the scenery is like.

kittygirl

Wow thanks so much!
5-7 is perfect for hiking, nice!
Looks beautiful!
Have to check out the flights - drive time is reasonable.

Hope there is something direct to Reno.
Any hotel recommendations? Anniversary so we like nice.

Seattle/Parks still an option as the distance to fly/drive is about the same but not sure about accommodations.

Thanks!

Patty

There's no nonstop service from PHL to RNO. Have you been to Park City, UT? It's less than an hour from SLC.

sf7307

If you do decide to go to Lake Tahoe, the nice hotels on the north shore are the Hyatt at Incline Village (across the street from the lake), and the Ritz-Carlton at Northstar (not on the lake, but with great views). The Inn at Squaw Creek in Squaw Valley is good, but not as nice as the other two.

kittygirl

Thanks Patty and sf7307!
Will look into both!
What to do in Park City?

Thanks!

voyager61

Mt. Rainier has some beautiful hiking, as do the Cascades in general. Ideally, you would book 2 nights at Paradise Lodge in the park, but that takes pre-planning many months ahead of time...it's probably impossible to get into for this September. However, you could do a day-trip to Paradise or Sunrise and have a highly memorable hiking experience, then do another day of hiking off I-90 in the Cascades east of Seattle (there are some great ones that are only an hour or so from Seattle.) Combine that with a hotel in downtown Seattle, a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and wine tasting in Woodinville, and you have a special trip. There are any number of fabulous restaurants in the Seattle area for a special occasion: Canlis, Nishino or The Herbfarm are some of the big names, but there are many others.

Five nights isn't enough to fully take in Washington State...I think the San Juan Islands are unique and normally would recommend a stay there if you had 7 to 10 nights instead of five, but you could still have a pretty great 5 night trip here.

5alive

Given your interest in Washington state...

If you want really nice lodgings in a scenic area, it's worth mentioning the lodge at Snoqualmie Falls. It's called the Salish. I seriously looked at staying there one year for our anniversary but ended up going elsewhere due to availability. So I have only been to the Falls, but not stayed at the lodge myself.

The drawbacks: The hiking trail was closed earlier this year. It is supposed to be open this fall--worth checking on the date. Also there is typically less water at a waterfall in early fall. Perhaps for these reasons, the hotel website is showing availability in September.

Patty

What to do in Park City?

We went rafting, horseback riding and hot air ballooning but there's plenty of hiking as well. Some of these activities were in nearby areas as opposed to right in Park City.

kittygirl

We are definitely going to do WA state as we can fly direct.

We did find a lodge we liked called the Stormking but it is booked so about to check out the Salish, thank you. We were "warned" that later in September or early October could be very rainy and not ideal for Mt Rainier - although hard to predict, it still seems a lovely choice.

The Cascades sound a lovely option as well. Any super Seattle hotel recommendations?

kittygirl

5 Alive, Salish did have availability but the attitude of reception less then desirable when I inquired about the falls, just an FYI they path down is closed and apparently will remain as such for a while.

Looks like a lovely place, too bad the opposite direction from Mt. Rainier

kittygirl

Based on my own research it appears that Salish is around 1.5 hrs from Mt Rainier, so either Google is crazy or the receptionist at Salish does not know the area.

kittygirl

Airfare is booked to SeaTac
Now we are just awaiting responses from lodges in Ashford -
Any Mt Rainier hikers have favorite trails or recommendations?

We may do Salish the 2 nights after if we find it not too far and friendly, that area looks lovely also.