'Oh, what a paradise!' exclaimed the daughter of park pioneer James Longmire on visiting this spot for the first time in the 1880s. Suddenly, the high-mountain nirvana had a name, and a very apt one at that. One of the snowiest places on earth, 5400ft-high Paradise remains the park's most popular draw, with its famous flower meadows backed by dramatic Rainier views on the days (a clear minority annually) when the mountain decides to take its cloudy hat off. Aside from hiding numerous trailheads and being the starting point for most summit hikes, Paradise guards the iconic Paradise Inn (built in 1916 and refurbished in 2008) and the massive, informative Henry M Jackson Visitor Center , that holds a cutting-edge museum with hands-on exhibits on everything from flora to glacier formation and shows a must-see 21-minute film entitled Mount Rainier: Restless Giant . Park naturalists lead free interpretive hikes from the visitor center daily in summer, and snowshoe walks on winter weekends.
