Mt. Rainier Day 3

Day three was by far the clearest day we had at Mt. Rainier. We took Dad and Christina up to Sunrise to see the views. Day three was also a Saturday.We soon realized that would mean LOTS of people. We more than once gave up on stopping at sites, because it was just too hard to fine parking spots. However, we did drive through a lot of the park that day, including Paradise, and saw a lot of amazing views.

We stopped by Grove of the Patriarchs, a small area of the park that boasts some very big trees. Some have already fallen, but some are still standing and alive.

The actual grove has to be accessed by a suspension bridge that proved to be a bit of an obstacle since there were so many people trying to cross over!

Christina, Mom and Amber standing under some very big trees!

We got different views of Mt. Rainier as we rounded the southern side of the park. It was just as stunning from each new angle! Here is one shot from a viewpoint near Paradise. I didn't take many pictures as we drove through the park, because I was driving. :-)

And there you have the last of our adventures at Mt. Rainier. It was not quite the last trip of the season for me, though. Stay tuned for Hawaii!

Mt. Rainier Day 2

I skipped ahead to post pictures of Labor Day, but I want to go back and post the rest of my pictures from Mt. Rainier! So here is day two. It was a Friday, and Dad and Christina weren't able to join us until the evening. So Mom, Amber and I took a hike up by the Sunrise visitor center. We hiked up to an area called the Burroughs. It was bit harder than I expected and it was pretty hot that day, but it was still a great hike! Sadly, it was also pretty hazy. We still got some amazing mountain views, though.

Shadow Lake

Wildflowers

We hiked along the edge of this valley. If you look down toward the bottom of the valley, you can see the beginning of the White River, which ran by our campground. Also, check out that beautiful turquoise-colored lake! I never could find a name for it.

All these people were hiking down as we hiked up. We realized that we had chosen to go the "wrong" (harder) direction on a loop trail between the visitor center and the Burroughs.

Do you see those little white specks? Those are goats!

The green, forested section down in the valley is called Berkeley Park. We didn't get to hike down in there, but I would like to come back sometime and do that.

That bare hill is First Burrough and the long steep trail up to its crest was our last hard push before we headed back down.

We made it! Check out that view of Mt. Rainier!

Frozen Lake. We hiked past it on our way back down. The path back to the visitor center was much easier and much faster!

Dad and Christina met up with us at the campground. We were sorry that they missed hiking with us. We took them down to the White River around sunset, though, where we admired Mt. Rainier again.

Mount Rainier: Day 1

Our next adventure this summer was a trip up to Mount Rainier. Our cousin Amber came to visit and that provided a great excuse to go somewhere we had been wanting to explore anyway! We've been in the Northwest for about 12 years, yet never really gotten to see Mount Rainier National Park. Now that I know what we were missing, I really want to go back!

We spent most of our time on the eastern side of the mountain. That's the side where the Sunrise Visitor Center is located. The view from Sunrise is amazing, and there are a lot of trails that start from that area.

Mom, Amber and I came up together on a Thursday and explored Sunrise, as well as the area around our campground

The Sunrise Visitor Center.

The day lodge. Isn't it cute?

We camped at White River, which is down in a valley below Sunrise. It was a lovely campground. Not far from our campsite there was a little historical ranger cabin that we got to look inside.

The campground was just a short walk away from the roaring White River. There were rustic log bridges over the river.

This was a smaller bridge. You can see the main part of the river behind Amber.

The area around the river had a great view of Mount Rainier!

This bridge was longer, and just a little scary, because the river current is so strong. I would not want to fall in! Amber and I were fascinated by the intermittent clunking sounds we heard around the river. We're pretty sure it was the sound of boulders getting pushed down the river.