Mt. Rainier is awesome. Peg and I made two visits to the park, one to remember why we do not visit NP’s on weekends and the other to make sure the construction flaggers and pilot cars had work. Because we do most of our traveling on an ad hoc basis, we really did not look into visiting Mt. Rainier, we just went because it was a beautiful, sunny day. Apparently, this is the same reason everyone visits the park.
The first sign that indicated this might be a challenging trip was just after we stopped to top off the diesel. We left the gas station, drove about a mile, and voila! Traffic stopped, parked, going nowhere fast, etc. After much stop and go we reached the entrance only then was there a sign that said the visitors center parking lot was full.
Steve and Peg's Adventures 