Mt. Rainier

So today I got a day off... and the weather was perfect! (The best so far... warm, no rain and clear!) So we headed to Mt. Rainier National Park for the day. It is about 45 miles from our apartment, and even though the Mountain can be seen for miles, often the clouds prevent a good view of it. We were able to get quite a few very cool pictures, but due to space I cannot post all of them. I talked to Martha tonight and she informed me that I needed to do a better job keeping up with this blog site... so I will try!

 

We got to go hiking and see a few of the old growth trees. Many were destroyed in a mudslide (or Lahar) in 1945... so a new forest has grown up around them and the old one is rotting away. The mud covered up the roots so deep that the trees could not survive. We went climbing down in what appeared to be where the glaciers and spring time thaw runs through the mountain. At this time of year we only saw a little trickle and many trees and rocks to try and climb over. In the background is the top of Mt Rainier at over 14,000 ft.

 

After we met someone from Pierz Minnesota (his grandparents happen to be friends and neighbors with mine... what a small world!) we headed to Narada Falls. It was a little tricky getting there since it has already snowed. However, the warm temperature melted some of it, so the falls was raging and we carefully made it down to a great viewing spot. The rainbow comes from the angle (I had to subject our camera to the mist... and after two pictures the lens was so wet I could not take anymore.) Corey didn't think the rainbow would turn out, but I think it looks pretty good!

 

When we were standing by the railing the wind from the water fall and the mist made us feel like we were at that ride at Valley Fair. You know the one where you stand on the bridge and wait for the water to come. It was a weird sensation, we felt like we were going to fall... but we didn't. The trip back up was a little treacherous, but the view was worth it.

 

We were not able to get all up to the highest point that is accessible by road since snow has already closed down some roads. We did make it up to the last visitor's center open where we found a bunch of people taking in the view (and feeding the birds.) One lady found this fox hiding in the trees, a bunch of us were trying to get his picture... with out much luck. Finally, he decided to come out of hiding and got up fairly close to the people... that is what happens when people don't read signs and decide to feed the wildlife (pretty soon the wildlife is not afraid of the people).