I recommend to start early in the morning. You own the whole mountain by yourself, or just about. I also recommend anti clockwise direction to hike. So start from Paradise and go to Myrtle Falls and follow the trail. This way you will be descending the steepest hill at the end instead of climbing in the beginning.
I love this trail and I take my time to appreciate its beauty. Stop and listen to the sound of creek, insects, and wind. Enjoy.

This trail is rated difficult, and we were very hesitant to attempt it. After reading numerous raving reviews about the wildflowers, sceneries, 3 marmots, a bear and her two cubs, and several encouraging reviews of not letting the difficult rating stop one from walking this trail. We decided to try it.

A number of reviews also suggested doing the loop counter-clockwise, but I couldn't decide. Since we figured we take a bio break at the visitor center before we start, the trail head next to the visitor center turn out to be the start of the counter-clockwise loop. The clockwise loop starts close to the Inn.

The start of the loop is very steep. In retrospect, I think we rushed. We were trying to do one mile an hour (i have read the trail can be completed in 3 hours. We're not active people, and we also like to stop and smell the roses, :) It was a foggy start. While we couldn't see the scenery very well, we quickly saw a chipmunk. It turns out there are lots of chipmunks on this side of the trail. They are accustomed to be fed, they will come up to you. Soon after the first chipmunk, we came across marmots. By the end of the trail, we saw too many marmots to count. we were happy.

The fog added to our enjoyment of the scenery. At one point, the mountain peak showed itself from behind the fog, it was magical.

From the start to the highest point of the trail, I would say we saw almost all the chipmunks and marmots. For the rest of the trail, we saw more wildflowers, streams/waterfalls, and I made a handprint on snow. oh, here is where we saw a bear in the distant valley. When we weren't looking down, we enjoyed the beautiful views of tree lines, valleys.

The whole trail took us 5 1/2 hours. It was rough on one of us with a bad knee. We didn't have walking sticks, they could have helped. We did wear hiking boots, saved my toes many times. The day we went the high of the day was mid-60's? it was comfortable. There is also little shade on the trail.

Hope you will enjoy this trail as much as we did.

Great hike with wonderful views of Mt. Rainier. The first part is paved but quite steep, the rest is fairly strenuous, but doable for anyone in reasonable shape. A good pair of hiking shoes is recommended. The panoramic views of the mountain and the rest of the Cascades is well worth it.