Would appreciate help with Mt. Rainier/Wine Tasting/Seattle Trip Planning!
 

Dear all,

I'm in the infancy of planning a 6-day trip to Washington for my SO and me. We'll be celebrating our anniversary (we met 12 years ago come this September). So far, this is what we have planned (it's vague, but at least an outline!):

Sept. 4th (Friday morning-Sunday morning):
Fly into SEA in the AM, pick up rental car and drive to Mt. Rainier.
Spend two days here via rental a cabin.
Go to the visitor's center, hike, take photos, etc.

Sept. 6th (Sunday):
Drive to X.

Sept. 7th (Monday morning through Wednesday morning):
Drive north and drop off car at airport; take shuttle into Seattle (Monday morning). Stay at W or Westin (using Starwood points before they expire).

Sept. 9th (Wednesday):
Leave on early afternoon flight.

The big question is what to do on that Sunday, X Day. Can we easily take a ferry to Bainbridge Island and go wine tasting? Or wine taste somewhere else? Or should we flip the Mt. Rainier portion with X Day and do something entirely different? A spa day? We're two young 30-somethings looking for a quieter type of vacation filled nature, arts, wine, and/or just sort of escaping.

Thanks!

It's not quiet but you might want to figure our major music and arts festival into your plans that takes place at Seattle Center over Labor Day weekend (bumbershoot.org).

Are you not able to drop the car downtown so you don't have to shuttle into downtown?

On your X day, you might consider driving to Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie for a nice romantic/spa evening, or Willows Lodge in Woodinville for wine tasting and fine dining (the famous Herbfarm restaurant is here, and the Barking Frog at the Lodge is very good as well).

From Mt. Rainier it's a relatively short and scenic drive east on US 12 to Yakima and the heart of the Yakima Valley vineyard area. While there's wine tasting near Seattle, not many grapes are grown on the west side, while there are quite a few wineries located throughout the Yakima Valley. Have a look at http://www.wineyakimavalley.org/ - there are probably some events scheduled for Labor Day weekend. From Yakima back to Seattle is around 2 1/2 hours on the freeway.

Another somewhat longer-distance option, but probably pretty interesting for folks interested in "nature, arts, wine, and/or just sort of escaping" would be to go over US 12 from Rainier, then down US 97 over Satus pass (real old west scenery) to the Columbia River.

At the Columbia River, you can visit the very interesting Maryhill Museum - http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/ with an eclectic but beautifully presented collection of artworks and Native American crafts, in a lovely setting overlooking the big river. A mile or two east of the museum, just pass US 97, is our own Stonehenge, now operated by the Museum.

Just down the hill from the museum is the Maryhill Winery, producing some terrific wines and also hosting various musical events - http://maryhillwinery.com/

From Maryhill it's about two or three hours west through the Columbia Gorge back to Portland, then 3 hours north back to Seattle. If you were looking for a place to spend the night Sunday, you could stay at Hood River, or if there's room, at the very fun Edgefield - http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=3 - at the west end of the Gorge (Maryhill is more or less the east end.) They have a winery (as well as a brewery and distillery,) very cool art throughout the premises, and a movie theater on the site. From the Edgefield it's around 3 hours back to downtown Seattle the next day.

Gardyloo as ususal has an excellent suggestion, but since your planned itinerary has just one day (Sunday) for the wine-tasting part, you could loop back through Woodinville (a bit NE of Seattle) on your way down from Rainier and catch as many wineries as you like:

http://www.woodinvillewinecountry.com/Wineries.cfm

These are wineries an dtasting rooms, not vineyards. Not all are open on Sunday, but many are. And if deLille is open that day, I wouldn't miss it.

Many thanks for all of the suggestions. We're confirmed on the first two nights near Mt. Rainier at Wellspring, then we're driving over to the Yakima Valley and staying for a night at the 4 Seasons River Inn before driving up to Seattle for two nights. We will be dropping the car off before we go into the city because there was a large fee if we wanted to return it to somewhere other than the airport... Again, tons of thanks!

I would make my home base in Seattle and go to Mt. Rainier whatever day the skies are clear and the mountain is visible.

However, if you start your trip in the Yakima Valley, you could drive to Mt. Rainier over Chinook Pass (Highway 410) and go to Sunrise, which many (me included) consider to be the most beautiful part of Mt. Rainier NP.

The drive from Sunrise to Paradise is also beautiful and it offers spectacular views of the mountain on a clear day. Stop at the Grove of the Patriarchs for a delightful easy hike. Box Canyon and Narada Waterfall are also worthwhile stops. If Paradise is, as usual, overflowing with cars, there are excellent views of the mountain from Longmire (and there is a restaurant there too).

HTTY

Sounds like a nice trip! I love Wellspring--it just has a great feel to it. I'm not familiar with the 4 Seasons River Inn--hopefully you'll report back on how it is.

As I just wrote elsewhere on this site, a month ago the road to Sunrise via the southwest entrance of Mt. Rainier was closed several miles after Paradise, so you had to make a 3 hour trip outside the park to get there. If you plan to use that entrance, you may want to check to see if the road is open, and possibly use another entrance, if it's closed.

That road re-opened right around the end of July. Here's a link to road status reports at Mt Rainier NP:

http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/road-status.htm