Mt. Rainier National Park
The goal of this section of our trip is to explore Mount Rainier National Park which was established in 1899 as the nation's 5th national park and covers 369 sq miles. Prior to that, for over 10,000 years the area has been the ancestral homeland of various indigenous peoples, including: the Nisqually, Puyallup, Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, Yakima, and Coast Salish.
Unfortunately, when we were there, Sunrise - the Park's highest area for hiking - was closed due to fire.
The Park was located only about 20 minutes from our AirBnB.
We were surprised to see signs along the route giving indications of how long the wait would be to enter the park from that point. We did the math and estimated about 90 cars/hour enter the park when there is a 3 hour wait. The entrance gate was very impressive and the trees during our entire time visiting this national park were amazingly big and beautiful.
Biggest disappointment - No buni relatives to buy because the national park service discontinued selling them. We choose to believe it's because they were returned to the wild.
hike 1 - Rampart Ridge- 7 miles, 1500 feet elevation gain.
No visibility, rain and a relentless uphill slog. No animals. Coddiwomple rating: 3/10. It got 3 because the paths were well kept and there wasn't any trash.
We had to start via the "Trail of the Shadows" which sounded much more interesting than it was.
and then go up interminable switchbacks to a beautiful view of Mt Rainier which we couldn't see....
Dinner was at the Ukrainian restaurant in Paradise Village. We had borscht and split an order of Galushiki (like gnocchi). I had some Kvas (a fermented drink) which reminded me of my time in Russia. We followed it up with cherry varenikyi (sweet cherry dumplings), which made up part of my breakfast combined with my cottage cheese the following morning.
This morning Chris found a deer in the yard, but it's the first animal we've seen here. We heard an owl last night, but Merlin couldn't identify it.
hike 2: Carter and Madcap Falls - 6 miles, 1200 feet elevation gain. Coddiwomple rating: 4/10 (good weather, nice track, saw deer, disappointing falls, interesting bridge)
The weather was in our favor and we decided to take a shorter hike than yesterday to some falls which were recommended. We were a bit disappointed with this one too because the falls were rather underwhelming.
The hike started at the same trailhead as yesterday's, but paralleled the road to a "bridge" across a river. The bridge was a carved off tree trunk.
Here are some photos of the rather disappointing falls
Just as I was complaining that there weren't many animals, we saw 2 deer on the path which increased the path overall rating from a 3 to a 4.
The main reason we were so happy with this AirBnB is because we saw a bunny in garden.
Hike 3: Skyline Loop Trail - 7 miles 2,000 feet elevation gain. I could see why it is the most popular hike in the park because it was the best hike so far on this trip. Coddiwomple rating: 9.5/10. The only reason it wasn't rated 10 is due to the crowds which included some idiot pushing an empty baby carriage. Parking was also a challenge.
The weather was amazing and we were finally able to see Mt. Rainier which is about 14,000 feet high.
We parked about 1/2 mile away to make sure we could find a space that would be downhill on the return.
Even though it was very busy, we saw a black bear which was moving away from the crowds.
A ranger with a gun was on the lookout. This time he wasn't chasing Chris.
We saw marmots in several spots. They were very close and not worried about the crowds at all.
As we gained altitude we could see several other volcanos, including Mt. McAdam (pictured in left photo) and Mt. St. Helen (in right photo).
As we got above the treeline, we could see glacial run-off waterfalls.
Now we were getting very close to the top of our hike and as we approached one of the final observation areas, we looked up and could see the very scenic drop toilet, the only one on the hike.
At the final observation point, there were several very friendly chipmonks. One was so friendly it actually jumped on buni before it scampered away (no photo because I was so shocked it jumped on buni which was in my pocket). Here is a panorama shot.
Just as we got to the top, we heard something that sounded like thunder and looked up to see a rock fall/avalanche. The dust is visible in this photo.
We spent a lovely 30 minutes sunbathing at the top. This photo looks like Chris fell over on his face, but he's actually having a nap.
There were some crazy people who brought their snowboards up in order to ski on the glacier.
Coming down we had different views of the mountain, but still beautiful. This side had more meadows, greenery, waterfalls, and animals.
We were lucky to see rock ptarmigan that were not scared at all. This is a bird I've heard a lot about and never seen before. In the winter they turn white and were eaten by the Indians.
We passed two herds of mountain goats. Here's a photo of one of them (there were 4 in the heard on the left). You have to look really hard to see the couple of goats in the right hand photo.
More lovely views and a distinctive cloud that looked like a puff ball. There was also this interesting bench that commemorates the first documented successful summit of Mt Rainier.
There was a very brave chipmonk that was working on getting a nut out of the ground and he wouldn't move, even though we walked right over him.
There were many flowering wildflowers - lupins shown here.
I tried some jiffy pop for dinner. It seems to be everywhere here, but I can't find it in Florida.
Hike 4: Naches Peak Loop Trail - 3.6 miles 800 feet elevation gain. Coddiwomple score: 5/10. It had beautifullt maintained trails and some nice views, but almost no wildlife and too crowded.
Sidenote: Chris saw 2 elk in the early morning when he went out for coffee.
The weather was good today and we saw a lot of Mount Rainier. It looked to have more snow on it than yesterday. We also got to go through several interesting tunnels.
We enterred the park via a different (less impressive) entrance, but passed into the start of the trail over a rather impressive bridge.
There were some lovely views,
glades and meadows
My big wildlife sighting was seeing this guy eating lunch.
Rainy days
We had a few rainy days at the end of our stay. It stayed nice enough to do a fifth hike.
Hike 5: Snow lake: 2.62 miles, 800 foot elevation gain. Coddiwomple rating: 3/10 (crowded, uninspiring lakes, no wildlife, well kept trail)
Buni enjoyed looking at the lake, which we saw from a couple different angles before heading back to the trailhead.
Leaving the park we got lucky and drove by some deer on the side of the road.
Not much to report, except we did go out to an interesting dinner at the Hobo Inn, a refurbished train with diner/comfort food.
Here's the menu
In my case, that included a burger and red velvet cake.
It was great to have a day off! We saw the bunny again who came to say goodbye. This is not the bunny - it is another big snail.
So we said goodbye to our favorite AirBnB, Mt. Rainier National Park and it's beautiful waterfalls and big straight trees.
And just like that, we were off to Montana and Yellowstone National Park. More on that in about 5 days.
Comments