Little Owl Cabin at Mt. Rainier

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Packwood, WA
Little Owl Cabin at Mt. Rainier

5 dreamy cabins within mins of Mt Rainier Nat’l Park, White Pass Ski Area & the Pacific Crest Trail. We're just 20 minutes from Mt. Dogs welcome.

Little Owl is your Pacific Northwest cabin fantasy brought to life. Rainier National Park, White Pass Ski Area, and some of the most breathtaking hiking trails on the West Coast. Hoof a trail or carve some powder, then relax in our cedar hot tub to the sounds of Coal Creek and the sights of old-growth forest. For the homebodies, we have plenty of games, cookware, books, movies, WiFi and ephemera. We're just 2.5 hrs from Seattle and Portland.

05/15/2025

Marmot is on the market! This cabin has brought us, and many of you, a lot of joy and happy memories since 2018. If you’re in the market for a Packwood cabin, come take a peek at Marmot during our open house, this Saturday, May 18, from 11:00 to 3:00 PM.

For more info, contact Chris Murphy: [email protected], or 360.918.6497.

04/19/2025

As many of you know, life kinda kicked us in the teeth…er, head, last year when Val suffered a hemorrhagic stroke.

It’s hardly a stretch to say that she cheated death. Waiting even another 30 minutes to rush her to the hospital likely would’ve been fatal.

The crappy thing about a stroke is that it can take on ambiguous expressions. Val had been sick for several hours, and something about this looked a little different to me, but stroke never crossed my mind until she fell out of bed. By then, she was in seriously critical condition.

Thankfully, the all-volunteer Packwood Fire Department arrived in light speed to spirit her to the first of what would be three hospital stops. We’re profoundly grateful to them, the heroic physicians at Harborview who saved her life, and our friends in Packwood who stepped up to keep the lights on during Val’s 11-week hospitalization.

Time away from Packwood has given us a chance to reflect on our business. Truth be told, we were feeling overwhelmed by the property management burden for five cabins well before Val’s stroke. (Spoiler: STRs are NOT passive income!) We were delaying a long list of creative directions we wanted to explore just to keep up. It felt like the right time to lighten our footprint.

Val’s stroke made that decision a lot easier for us. We love our cabins, meeting guests, creating experiences, but it’s time to dial it back some. Marmot is currently on the market.

Little Owl (the OG) will be our first, last and only cabin for the foreseeable future, and it’s getting a big refresh in the next several weeks. We couldn’t be more excited to make it happen and share it with you all.

Sincere thanks to all of you who sent heartfelt expressions of love and support. Things were totally scary and chaotic for a few months—and things are still a bit precarious—so I couldn’t possibly respond to all of you, but please know that your messages were read and received with the deepest gratitude.

Finally, get smart on the signs of stroke—now! They’re sneaky, scary and fatal, and lest you think you’re too young, know that the type of stroke Val suffered occurs most commonly among 20- and 30-somethings.

12/28/2024

Pine Marten, in full winter garb.

A cedar sauna, cedar hot tub, and trails from the back deck that run for miles into the National Forest make this an ideal winter retreat for up to 4 guests.

05/18/2024

The question of if/when/how to represent ourselves as the faces of this business, and share everything from the extraordinary to the banal about our day-to-day, has always found a single conclusive answer: hell no!

We’re proud of the spaces we’ve created in this gorgeous corner of the world, but we’ve never kindled any wishes to be social media famous ourselves. Most days, we’d rather chew glass than put in the hours to rank on Instagram, let alone primp and coiffe for the camera.

That said, we’ve chatted with enough of you all by now to know that our journey into this funny little cabin racket is at least minimally curious. Insofar as it makes us accessible to more of you good people, we’re down for a formal(ish) introduction.

So, howdy! We’re Ryan and Val. Gen X’ers, NYC refugees, 17-years married, former civil servants and non-profiteers. Val, born in Queens, was an affordable housing developer in the Bronx and Seattle Chinatown. Ryan, born and raised in Tulsa, OK and educated in NY, worked in public policy, managing disaster relief programs circa 9/11 and Katrina, then pivoting to green buildings and energy conservation before a professional mid-life crisis drove him—naturally—into renovating cabins in Packwood.

This business and our residency in Packwood often seem too unlikely to be real. We’re just city kids who took a few vacations in the mountains in the early-2000s, then got to thinking about an alternative out-of-office lifestyle. Even after we renovated our first cabin here in 2015, Packwood seemed about as natural a home for us as the ice rings of Saturn, but after a few years of full-time country life, we feel like we made some pretty good choices.

We’ve hosted 4,000+ reservations since we opened our doors in 2016. If you made a maintenance call, or if we happened to be at the cabin as you were checking in/out, then we’ve probably met. If you’re one of the 30 or so annual return guests, then we’ve almost definitely become friendly. It’s been a sincere joy getting to know you all.

We’d love to hear from the rest of you all. “Ask us anything” in our story, or just send us a DM!

11/18/2023

The problem with DIY, if you keep at it, is that your freshman efforts inspire varying combinations of dread, panic and shame. ⁠
⁠
My friends and our guests tell me they don’t see the warts in my early work. That’s a relief! But I still see them, and they drive me bat$ #*t crazy. ⁠
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This bunk room at Little Owl is a case in point. It earned us a feature in , which was totally rad and unexpected. Structurally, that bunk was more than sound, but the finish details were atrocious. I had to make some corrections, if only to help me sleep. ⁠
⁠
And here's the refinished product! For at least a few years, or until my skills level up another notch, this finally looks to me like a bunk room worthy of a page in Cabin P**n.

11/17/2023

You’ve arrived at Pine Marten.

07/08/2023

Pine Marten decorative thumbnail courtesy of our guests .outfitters and

02/26/2023

Ok, Mister Marty The Dog has the right idea! Double-tap if you agree.

🎥: instagram.com/mrmartymoran

Learn more about our cabins at: https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

02/23/2023

A recent guest told us he appreciated that Pine Marten actually felt like an old cabin, not one of those cabin-skinned homes that feel like a modern urban condo after you walk through the front door.

We designed Pine Marten to look and feel like the cabin where your Grandpa drank cheap beer, tinkered in the shed, played cards, and told tall tales from his Lazy-Boy. We just tossed the rickety recliner and added some mod-cons like WiFi, Bluetooth and a convection oven.

📍 Pine Marten Cabin
Learn more about our cabins at: https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

02/22/2023

Our Little Owl cabin has plenty of space. The bunk beds are perfect for the kids to relax and enjoy a quiet area of their own! ⁠

📍 Little Owl Cabin
Learn more about our cabins at: https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

02/19/2023

If you like being outside, you'll be happy here. In the winter, we glide on 400 inches of powder at the White Pass Ski Area. It’s time to soak up views like this!

Learn more about our cabins at: https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

02/18/2023

You might have heard that it rains a little out here. On those cold and wet days when you don’t wanna do anything but cocoon inside the cabin, you’ll find bookshelves thick with classics (including replica first editions), light reading, local references, and stacks of coffee table books.

Anything you think we should include? Let us know in the comments!

📷: Picture 1: instagram.com/thewanderingqueen
Learn more about our cabins at: https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

Address

Forest Ridge Drive
Packwood, WA
98361

Website

https://linktr.ee/littleowlcabin

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