Anyone have any 1st hand advice on short, not too strenuous hikes at Mt. Rainier NP. I've briefly looked thru 50 Hikes in Mt. Rainier but was wondering if anyone can give 1st hand suggestions. We love waterfalls, lakes and beautiful (the latter of which I know is abundant at Mt. Rainier). Can't wait for our trip!

Oh, too bad. I had a great joke about the "hiks" mentioned in your title. Now, I see this is about something else.

What is short and not too strenuous? A paved 1/2 mile nature trail or 6 miles on a well-maintained trail with not too much elevation gain?

"50 hikes" does have the best descriptions of the trails of any source-they tell you about scenery, wildlife, difficulty, length, and crowds...I'd take a closer look at that and at least narrow it down. The park website also has a section that specifically describes shorter trails.

There are several short hikes around Paradise - hiking maps are avialable at the lodge - the trails are all paved and many interconnect so you could spend the whole day just doing the hikes out of Paradise Lodge - Nisqually Vista and the Skyline Trail are 2 of them

Since you mention waterfalls...I saw an article about Comet Falls recently and would like to do that hike...I think it's about 4 miles RT, with not too difficult of an elevation gain.

I really like the Fremont lookout trail from Sunrise (I think it's about 5 miles RT), and the short Grove of the Patriarchs trail (I'm a sucker for really big trees).