Hiking Mount Rainier National Park, 2nd: A Guide to the Park's Greatest Hiking Adventures (Regional Hiking Series) Paperback – October 1, 2005

This book is aimed for a true thru-hiker and not for someone coming to enjoy various hiking paths the park has to offer. I was truly disappointed.

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This is the second edition of a guidebook that I previously called "the best guidebook for hiking (as opposed to climbing) Mount Rainier National Park". That's still true.The book covers pretty much every official trail in the park, from quarter-mile long interpretive loops to the 90 mile round-the-mountain Wonderland Trail. The book is organized geographically, and includes a table of lists which show trails organized by features (such as easy trails that go to waterfalls, etc.).Surprisingly it does not contain an alphabetical index, which makes it hard to look up trails or places if you only know their names and not their locations. (For instance, the cover shows a wonderful view of Myrtle Falls, but I was unable to find out from the book how to actually get there! I had to be able to recognize that the view of the mountain was from the Paradise area, and then the falls were shown on one of the Paradise area trail maps.)It has been some time since I last read the first edition of this guide, but I remember it being quite personal, with descriptions of what the authors saw when they were actually there. There is nothing like that in this edition -- there is no sense that authors actually travelled to Mount Rainier. The writing style seems very professional but unfortunately also very dry.I spend most of my time in Mount Rainier going off the trails and up to the many peaks that are in the park -- and this book is useless for that purpose. It doesn't even tell you about such easy unofficial trails as Knapsack Pass or Third Burroughs Mountain. To get information like that I recommend Beckey's Guide, Smoot's Climbing Washington's Mountains, and Goldman's 75 Scrambles. (Or my own Seattle Scrambles website.)But it is an excellent resource for what it does cover: official, maintained hiking trails in Mount Rainier National Park. Each trail is described with a qualitative overview, a detailed description of the hike, a list of points of interest, a map, and a table of vital statistics like the estimated hours it will take to hike the trail and the official source of information on current trail conditions.(The maps show some topographical detail and some trail detail, but they are not really replacements for serious topo maps. They do show UTM coordinates, but they don't say which datum they are using. The maps probably do suffice for summertime, good weather use -- when you are unlikely to lose the trail as long as you stay on it.)The book also has some chapters in the back covering things like "leave no trace" ethics, dealing with cougars and bears, how to hike in springtime snow, and subjects like that. Nothing in any great detail, but it could be useful information.For the person who wants to explore the official hiking trails of Mount Rainier, from the popular to the obscure, this is the book I would recommend.

As with most Falcon guide books they are solid planners covering nearly all trails in a particular area. The Rainier book covers all the trails in the park and a few that head out of the park. The book gives elevation gained/how hard to give one an idea of what you might face. It also covers the backcountry campgrounds and the author's reviews are usually right on if a campsite blows. It splits the sections by the sections of the park making it easy to find what you might be interested in.For hiking the Wonderland Trail though be sure to read  Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail: Encircling Mount Rainier  It covers the big trail in full depth.Otherwise the guide is perfect for planning a trip to what I consider the prettiest park in the country ;-)Only disclaimer: Due to the horrid weather/flooding at Rainier the past couple years be sure to call or visit the park's website for up-to-date road and trail info before you head out. Areas such as Carbon River that were once a mecca for day visitors are now a long walk in due to destroyed roads. As well, the front country campgrounds at Ipsuit Creek and Sunshine Point no longer exist for cars due to said flooding.

If you are looking for the best trails to hike in Mount Rainier area, look no further. This book has them all, hiking and backpacking, even description of the entire Wonderland Trail.