Mt. Rainier National Park

What can one say? Our country’s fifth National Park is stunning. It rivals Glacier National Park for beauty. The park is dominated by a single peak, the volcano known as Mt. Rainier. Mt. Rainier is covered with glaciers that are easily seen on a clear day. And if you have a clear day, take advantage of it.  All the park literature warns you that you might not see the mountain.  Fear not, there are a multitude of hiking trails, from easy to difficult to keep you busy. This blog post is going to be mostly pictures and few words.

Mt. Rainier, a glacier topped volcano.

Christine Falls

You are fortunate if you get a clear day to see Mt. Rainier.

This creek has cut a slot canyon into the rock over the years.

Paradise

Mt. Rainier is a VERY popular park. There are hour long lines to get in on the weekends. The most popular destination is called Paradise. The parking lot can fill up as early as 11:00 in the morning. Having heard this, we were out the door everyday by 6:30 a.m. to head to the park.

Paradise is at the sub-alpine level and is full of wildflower meadows. It is, well, Paradise. We were fortunate to have a clear day for our visit.

Can it get more beautiful than this?

This meadow took my breath away. It really spoke to me.

Summer Wildflowers

Reflection Lake. This is a popular place to take pictures of Mt. Rainier, especially when the lake is calm.

Surprise

Our visit to the Surprise area took place on a less than stellar day. The fog was rolling in and out all day.  But still, the hike was great. We had mist drifting all around us as we walked the trail.

We got to the Surprise Visitors Center early, there was plenty of parking, but plenty of fog too.

We saw the mountain briefly as we started our hike.  By the end of the hike, we couldn’t see a thing.

Jim and I both had the same thought when we saw these wildflowers. “Dr. Suess and the Lorax!

Grove of the Patriarchs

The Grove of the Patriarchs is an area of old growth Douglas Fir and Cedar trees By arriving at 7:00 in the morning, we had the entire trail to ourselves.

How old was this tree?

The tree was felled in 1963.

Counting the rings, the tree first grew in 1293.  This was a 670 year old tree.

That’s one big tree!

The sign reads “Recommended one person on bridge at a time.”

One person on the bridge at a time turns out to be a good recommendation. Walking on this bridge sets up a swaying motion to match your footsteps. When another person comes on the bridge, that rhythm gets disrupted.  Jim stepped onto the bridge when I was crossing it and I really noticed it!  I can’t imagine what this is like later in the day when the trails are packed.

Glaciers meet Lava

Finally, there were a couple areas where we saw these columnar rocks. From the interpretive signs, we learned that this is where a lava flow met a glacier. The sign states “The ice cooled the lava quickly, causing it to shrink and crack into narrow hexagonal columns that pointed toward the cool glacial ice.”

Up close.

Mt. Rainier is a not-to-be-missed National Park.  We had no problem spending a week in the area. Enough said.

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