A good start for the New year: snowshoe in Rainier. Narada Falls -> Reflection Lake. On the way out, loop over Mazama Ridge to Paradise, and back down to Narada Falls. According to this map, it's about 6 miles and ~1600' EG total. Reflection Lake is beautiful, so is the top part of the Mazama Ridge. It was a beautiful day to spend in Mt. Rainier.
Narada Falls ~4400' is under the road, you have to walk a bit to see it. Thin, not many icicles, and they are all at the bottom. But still quite nice. Enough spray created a small rainbow arc at the bottom. 
Back to the parking lot to pick up the trail to Paradise starts behind the bathrooms. It followed Paradise River (a creek really) for awhile. At the trail junction, we followed the sign to Reflection Lake. All the way, there're flags marked the trail. Impossible to get lost. 
Quite a few people, all ages, on this trail. For detail, check out http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/reflection-lakes. The lake is beautiful with sparkling flaky snow. Need to be here not far from noon. We were there ~2:30, and a better half of the lake is in the dark. Sitting in the sun was much warmer. A couple of guys were setting up tent at the south edge of the lake, facing Rainier, but in the shade already (~3pm). We walked across the lake and back. The surface is not truly flat. You can see the different shade and feel the different crunch under the snowshoes.
Coming back from the lake, gaining ~3-400' till the saddle. There, at the marked junction, turned right (north) along Mazama Ridge trail. Now, no more flags, but clear track lead the way. Towards the top, the view gets better and better. You wouldn't even see Rainier until you are almost at the top. However, soon too many footprints going different directions. 
My partner has a good sense of the terrain, and we got to the 4th crossing and down to the Paradise Rd without any problem. The view close to the top of Mazama Ridge (~5700') is just splendid. Plus the setting sun, absolutely beautiful. Didn't meet a single soul on this part except at the beginning, one guy was going on the wrong direction. A sign before Paradise Inn says "Narada Falls via Barn Flats 1.2 mile" south of the road. As it's only 1 mile from the map, it got me confused a bit. Walked around looking other signs. This IS the right trail goes down to Narada Falls. Had to use flashlight half of the way. For more detail on this section, see http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mazama-ridge and http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mazama-ridge-narada-falls-trail-loop.
The penalty (oh, definitely worth it) of catching the sunset at the top, is that you'd be back at your car in dark and after the gate closure. It's about 2 miles, so ~1 hour. As we were removing snowshoes in the now deserted parking lot, a ranger's car came over, and told us that the gate would be closing. Well, the gate was already closed (at 5pm sharp perhaps?), and one car ahead of us. Went to Longmire's lodge (a lot less guests then my last snowshoe trip here) and asked about the key. The lady said that the ranger has it and we had to wait for him to return. I filled some water in the filling station one floor down. It took some time for the ranger to finish making his rounds, and finally he appeared from the other side of the gate. I don't know how he got there.
No stars. Super moon tonight ~6:25pm.
