A climb from the Paradise Visitor Center towards the summit of Mount Rainier is as scenic as it gets. There’s a panoramic view of stunning mountains and other scenery in every direction. And there are the Paradise marmots.

Hoary marmots are fun critters that you can see and photograph right off of the hiking trails at Paradise. Marmots scurry in and out of their burrows or lounge on the rocks in the sun like the marmot in the photo above. They are also interesting to listen to and their loud chirps and high-pitched whistles echo across the mountain meadows.

I try to get to Mount Rainier at least once each summer to photograph the marmots but haven’t made it yet this year–the photograph in this post is from last summer. Hopefully I’ll still get a chance to visit Paradise near the end of September for some fall colors and my yearly marmot photo shoot. Here’s a link to a post from a few years ago that includes some more Paradise marmot photos.