21 June 2017

After leaving Vancouver Island and dropping Diane and John at SEATAC, we headed off to Mt. Rainier. Meriam and I have driven by Mt. Rainier several times but never took the time for a visit – our loss! It is a magnificent National Park.

For some background on Mt. Rainier, you might wish to read the script in the first photograph below. We were certainly clueless about it.

Other things that make this park special include:

• It is the 3^rd National Park in the U.S., however it was the first National Park to be created initially from a master plan.
• Three unserved campgrounds sit near the three of the park’s four entrances, with more than 20 backcountry (ie, hike-in) campgrounds.
• The Master Plan had a common theme – to encourage the exploration of the interior of the park by foot, not by vehicle.
• The road system which circles the foot of the mountain was designed to capture the views, not ease of construction. Pullouts and trailheads are placed at strategic points to enjoy the park.
• Though we enjoyed the snow, the road was still closed to Sunrise, the uppermost vehicular access point on the mountain (elev. 6400 feet).

We loved our three days here and are so blessed to have our heath enabling us to hike some of the backcountry trails.

We hope you do not get tired of seeing the Mountain. It so dominates the landscape, one feels compelled to view and photograph it at every chance.

As you can imagine, the elevation and snow accumulation on the Mountain create some magnificent waterfalls!

The water appears to be falling into an enormous hole (checkout our silhouettes just to the left of the waterfall).

YAVOMR (Yet Another View of Mt. Rainier)

Think of the amount of water required to create this wash. The pickup driving across the bridge below gives one a good perspective of its size.

We decided to have a picnic but our table was obscured somewhat!

Both here and on Vancouver Island we found trees whose bark had a circular twist. We questioned several different rangers about it but received no satisfactory answer.

We hiked part of the Wonderland Trail (a very small part), a 93 mile trek encompassing a total elevation change of over 23,000 feet.

Hiking this relatively short trail (1.1 miles) to an upper falls was quite steep. The elevation increased more than 850 feet.

Hard to show how steep this trail is.

The goal!

View of yet another wash.

Taking a short ½ mile botanical trail, we came upon this tree the beavers decided to leave unharvested.

This fallen tree is known as a “Nursery Tree”. Once dead, other trees and plants use it for nursement.

Although there was a lot of snow, the sub-alpine flowers were blooming. Here we see Clif Penstemon.

Meriam has her little wildflower book out and identified these as, bear grass, clif penstemon, mountain heather, harebell and paint brush.

Backside of Mt. Rainier