Two of the Pacific Northwest’s most striking volcanoes sit less than three hours apart, and this long-weekend loop puts both on the itinerary. Start at Mount Rainier’s Nisqually Entrance, climbing through old-growth forest to the wildflower meadows and glacier views at Paradise, then drive south to Mount St. Helens, where the 1980 eruption’s blast zone is still visibly recovering more than four decades later. It’s a compact trip built for a rental car and three days off work, not a wilderness expedition.
Day 1Nisqually Entrance to Paradise
Drive in through the park’s oldest gateway, stopping at a historic district and a waterfall on the way up to the glacier-draped meadows at Paradise.
🚙 Mount Rainier National Park — Nisqually Entrance
SR-706 from Ashford · $30 USD per vehicle, valid 7 days
The park’s original 1911 entrance and still its busiest, reached via SR-706 through the gateway town of Ashford. No timed-entry reservation is required to enter; an interagency annual pass ($80) pays for itself after about three park visits a year.
🌲 Longmire Historic District & Narada Falls
20-30 min loop + 10 min walk · free with park entry
Longmire’s 1916-era buildings and the easy Trail of the Shadows loop make a good first stretch of the legs, with the Longmire Museum covering the park’s early mountaineering and lodge history. Eleven miles further up the road, a short paved path drops to a viewpoint of 168-foot Narada Falls.
🏔️ Paradise & the Myrtle Falls Trail
1-2 hours · free
At 5,400 feet, Paradise is Mount Rainier’s most famous viewpoint — subalpine meadows that fill with lupine and avalanche lilies in summer, with the mountain’s glaciers rising directly behind them. The easy 0.8-mile round-trip to Myrtle Falls is the classic short walk; the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center has exhibits and trail updates.
🏨 Dinner & Overnight — Copper Creek Inn / National Park Inn
Ashford or Longmire · National Park Inn from $121/night, Paradise Inn $220-$425/night
Mount Rainier’s two in-park lodges couldn’t feel more different: the small, year-round National Park Inn sits in the forest at Longmire, while the grand 1917 Paradise Inn opens only for the summer season right in the meadows. For dinner, Ashford’s Copper Creek Inn Restaurant & Lodging has served home-style meals — and a blackberry pie locals still talk about — since 1946.
Rainier Guest Services (lodging) · (360) 569-2275 · mtrainierguestservices.com · Copper Creek Inn (dining) · (360) 569-2326
Day 2Reflection Lakes to the Blast Zone
Catch the mountain mirrored in still water at sunrise, then trade glaciers for an active volcano on the afternoon drive south.
🌅 Reflection Lakes
Sunrise · free, roadside pullouts on Stevens Canyon Road
A couple of miles east of Paradise, these shallow subalpine lakes mirror Mount Rainier on calm mornings before the wind picks up — one of the park’s most photographed, least-effort views, right off the road.
🚗 Drive South to Mount St. Helens
~155 miles · about 3 hours via SR-706, I-5, and SR-504
Exit the park the way you came in, pick up I-5 south near Elbe/Morton, and leave the freeway at exit 49 onto SR-504 (the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway) for the final stretch east toward Mount St. Helens.
🌋 Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake
SR-504, mile 5 · adults $5, ages 7-17 $2.50, 6 & under free
The first and largest of the mountain’s visitor centers, with exhibits on the May 18, 1980 eruption — still the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history — including a walk-through model of the volcano’s interior and film footage of the blast.
Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake · 3029 Spirit Lake Hwy, Castle Rock, WA · (360) 274-0962
🥾 Hummocks Trail & Coldwater Lake
~2.3 mile loop + viewpoint · free
SR-504 is currently open only as far as the Hummocks trailhead and the Mount St. Helens Science and Learning Center at Coldwater — the final stretch to Johnston Ridge Observatory has been closed since a 2023 landslide damaged the highway and remains shut while the road is rebuilt. That still leaves the Hummocks Trail, a loop through the jumbled, forested debris of the 1980 eruption’s landslide, and Coldwater Lake itself, a lake that didn’t exist before that same event.
Day 3Last Morning at the Volcano & the Drive Home
A final look at the blast zone’s slow recovery before the drive back.
🏞️ Coldwater Lake Morning Walk
Morning · free, day-use parking at the lake
A quiet return to Coldwater Lake before the crowds — flat lakeside trails and, on a still morning, another mountain reflection, this time with the scarred north face of Mount St. Helens instead of Rainier’s glaciers.
🏨 Checkout — Mt St Helens Motel, Castle Rock
Castle Rock · from around $85 USD/night
A simple, family-run motel on the edge of Castle Rock, in business since 1984 and the closest overnight base to the SR-504 corridor for a second-night stay before the drive home.
Mt St Helens Motel · 1340 Mt St Helens Way NE, Castle Rock, WA · (360) 274-7721
🚗 Drive Home
Variable · I-5 north or south from Castle Rock
Castle Rock sits right on I-5, about an hour and a half south of Seattle and under three hours north of Portland — an easy last leg whichever direction the trip started from.
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