Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State offers two historic in-park lodges: National Park Inn and Paradise Inn. Extremely popular and prone to sell out months ahead, there are also other options ranging from rentals, bed and breakfasts, and hotel/motel-style lodging just outside the park’s boundaries.
National Park Inn
A 1906 view of National Park Inn, Mount Rainier National Park / NPS file
According to Mount Rainier staff:
James Longmire built the first accommodations across the street, about where the Trail of Shadows is now, as a health resort. His guest cabins were open for business by 1889, and with help from his family, James added a simple, rustic, two-story hotel. Over the years, his son, Elcaine, added on to the hotel as well as built bath houses, barns and more. He called the expanded hotel the Longmire Springs Hotel but kept the informal, family atmosphere.
Because the Longmires built on land they patented as a mining claim, the newly formed park management could say little about how the hotel looked or was run. Over the years, there were arguments about appearances and operations so the park offered to buy the land and buildings in 1902. The Longmires refused. To introduce competition, the park leased land across the road from the Longmires to the Tacoma & Eastern Railroad Company so they could build a new hotel, the National Park Inn. The new, second, and more elegant hotel opened in 1906.
After Elcaine Longmire’s death, the Longmire family leased their land and buildings to the Longmire Springs Hotel Company starting in 1916. This company constructed a number of new buildings, including the two-story Inn Annex in the meadow across the road from the National Park Inn. That same year in 1916, the Rainier National Park Company (RNPC) formed, began construction on the Paradise Inn, and started buying buildings in Longmire. The RNPC soon purchased the Longmire Springs Hotel, the Inn Annex and the National Park Inn. They moved the Inn Annex across the road so it sat east of the National Park Inn and clubhouse, and dismantled the old Longmire Springs Hotel.
The National Park Inn and Annex were run as one hotel until 1926 when the original National Park Inn burned down, leaving the clubhouse and Annex. The Annex soon became known as the National Park Inn. Other changes were happening too. After lab tests confirmed the mineral springs were not medicinal, the RNPC stopped advertising the Longmire hotel as a health resort. The National Park Service eventually bought out the Longmires in 1939. Today, when strolling through the area, little remains of their health resort except the stonework around a few springs and the reconstructed cabin where Elcaine Longmire’s cabin once stood. All that remains of the hotels is the Annex, now the National Park Inn, which started life across the road. The clubhouse, the oldest building in Longmire, is now the gift shop next to the National Park Inn. Visiting Longmire today, it’s sometimes hard to imagine the many changes that have happened here.
A present-day view of the National Park Inn (originally the Annex but now the main building), Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
Just 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from the Nisqually entrance and open year-round, the National Park Inn offers 25 non-smoking guest rooms, including 2 ADA-accessible rooms on the first floor. All other rooms are accessed via a stair (no elevator). Room choices range from queen, double, or twin beds with or without bathrooms. Prices range from $210 to $362 per night, depending upon the season. There are no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and there is no internet service.
The Inn’s dining room serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and there is a general store next door to the Inn. Right across the road is the 0.7-mile Trail of Shadows loop, along with Wonderland Trail and Rampart Ridge trailheads.
The National Park Inn is a part of the Longmire Historic District, and guests can visit the Longmire Museum, the Wilderness Information Center, and use the historic suspension bridge to cross the Nisqually River to the Longmire Community Building.
Paradise Inn
Nestled at the foot of Mount Rainier is the Paradise Inn.
Paradise Inn in 1921, Mount Rainier National Park / NPS file
According to park staff:
The lure of Paradise has drawn people to the slopes of Mount Rainier for millennia. Local tribes like the Nisqually, Yakama, Puyallup, Cowlitz, and others, traveled to the Paradise meadows to hunt and gather. Early mountain climbers scaling the glaciers, used Paradise as a way stop. Paradise’s wildflower meadows also became a destination for some of the first tourists to the mountain. Before the creation of Mount Rainier National Park in 1899, people recognized a need for accommodations at Paradise. Construction of the Paradise Inn began the summer of 1916. Ground was broken on July 20, and most of the lobby, dining room, and rooms above the dining room, were completed that first summer. Opening on July 1, 1917, the inn had thirty-seven guest rooms and a dining room that could accommodate 400. Distinctive furnishing enhanced the lobby, including woodwork of the registration desk, two massive cedar tables and chairs, a mail drop “stump,” [hand-painted lampshades throughout lobby, dining room, and balcony area], and cases for the 14-foot-tall clock and the piano. After World War I, enough guests were staying at the lodge that the company could start building again. The Paradise Inn Annex, once completed, more than doubled the size of the inn, providing 104 more guest rooms. Structural braces were added to the timbers to help with the extra stress of long winters. Time and weather have not been kind to the Paradise Inn. Mount Rainier National Park has worked to renovate the structure while maintaining the historical aspects that make the Paradise Inn a unique place to visit.
Hand-painted lampshades at Paradise Inn, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
A dormer room in the main lodge building at Paradise Inn, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
A renovated Annex room at Paradise Inn, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
Today, the Paradise Inn offers 121 rooms ranging in price from $210 to $529, depending upon the season and room type. Guests have a choice of main building or Annex rooms, and there are at least two ADA-accessible rooms located on the lobby level of the main lodge. There are no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and there is no internet service. There is cell service.
The Paradise Inn dining room, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
There is a dining room in the main lodge serving breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner, as well as a small café and a gift shop, both in the main lodge. Outside of the Inn is the Jackson Visitor Center, which also has a café and gift store, and right outside the Paradise Inn are numerous area trails with fantastic views of “The Mountain.”
A present-day view of Paradise Inn, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson
Outside The Park
If you are unable to reserve a room at either of these inns (and rooms at both are booked months in advance), there are numerous lodging options outside park boundaries, including vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts, and hotel/motel-style rooms.
Lewis County (south of the park)
Mineral Lake (near the southwest corner of the park)
Mount Rainier Visitor Association
Stay Rainier (lodging near the Sunrise Area)
If you don’t mind driving between 35 – 70 miles (one way), the larger communities such as Puyallup, Spanaway, Chehalis, and Tacoma provide numerous overnight choices.
