Mt. Rainier National Park

(Puyallup, WA) Hi 84 Lo 56 – We must really be living right because we’ve had the most spectacular weather since we’ve been in Oregon and here in Washington. It was another bright, sunny day. The locals say many families come to Seattle on vacation and never once see the peak of Mt. Rainier. And here we’ve seen it every day so far. Today we wanted to get a closer look at the mighty mountain, so we drive a little over an hour to Mt. Rainier National Park.



When we first entered the park we were a little disappointed because the road was narrow and twisting through dense forest. But after a few miles we finally reached more open terrain, and the giant mountain came into view. (Click on the photos to enlarge them. If you don’t, you’re really missing out.)



The view of the surrounding area wasn’t bad either.








We stopped at a very pretty waterfall on the way to the visitors center. The parking area was at the top of the falls. We stood on a bridge and looked straight down to the bottom. Look closely near the top of the photo below and you can see a viewing platform down below.



We walked down a short but steep path to that viewing platform…


… where we got this great view of the falls. Isn’t the rainbow pretty?


Here’s a close up of the top, where you can see the bridge where we started out.


We finally reached the visitors center, which is the closest you can get to the mountain without hiking.


It was strange, but it looked smaller from the visitors center than it did from long distance. I think it’s because we were viewing it from a higher elevation, so the prominence was reduced.


But it was still an awesome sight!


We could never show it in a photograph, at least with our camera, but with our binoculars we could see about a dozen climbers making their way up the snowfield at the right of the photo above.

Here’s a close up of one of the more than 30 glaciers on the mountain.


After we browsed around the visitors center, saw the video in the theater, and walked through the gift shop, we drove another few miles to the Reflection Lakes viewing area. This was by far the coolest view.


Here’s a panorama I took with my smart phone. That’s Dee on the left end of the photo.


Just gorgeous! (And the mountain is very pretty too.)

It was a long but wonderful day. The people here in the Seattle area are so lucky to get to look at Mt. Rainier on a daily basis. And we’re so lucky to have been here when the weather conditions were so perfect.

See you tomorrow.