Year Round (but Campgrounds open between May and June close between September and October)
Cougar Rock (SW Corner), Ohanapecosh (SE Corner), and White River (NE Corner)
I liked Mount Rainier a lot. It's probably hard to believe but while staring at this 14,000+ feet, snow covered behemoth I was busy sweating through my t-shirt. It was uncommonly hot weather while I was here. We're talking record breaking stuff. According to one source (probably unreliable as it was a man who said he could have a supervisor job back in California if he wanted it and that while riding his bike he was hit by an off-duty police officer who had been tippin' the bottle) it was 105 degrees. The amount of dirty laundry I produced while I was here would concur, but I don't know, that's some serious heat.
All of that has nothing to do with the park. There are four entrances (four corners) to the park. I stayed at Sunrise and this portion includes a hike to the Glacier Basin which is frequented by those hoping to summit Mount Rainier. In order to summit the climbers hike to the Glacier Basin which is their base camp. They'll rise early the following day, try to reach summit and then return back to Glacier Basin (hopefully after a successful trek). I went to Glacier Basin, through the camp, through the basin, looked up at Rainier, and even though I was hotter than the devil, I was also tired and hungry, so I headed back to the campgrounds. Next, I drove up to Sunrise Point and the Sunrise visitor center. All along the drive you have beautiful views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding Cascade Mountain Range. This park has a sort of majestic feel to it. I don't know if it would even crack my top 10 yet, but there are definitely qualities of it that I would return for.s