Thursday, September 8, 2011

MT. RAINIER SHINES FOR US – MT. RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, WA

Glorious Mt. RainierWow!  Mt. Rainier was eye-popping on Wednesday, not a cloud in the sky!

At the end of our stay in Astoria, we had two days to travel up to the Seattle area for a long-planned gathering of friends.  With a forecast of warm, sunny weather, it looked like we had a good chance to see Mt. Rainier from bottom to top.  We found a new-to-us campground, reasonably close to Mt. Rainier (even closer to the east side of Mt. St. Helens) and off we went.

Odel on snow at Mt. RainierTaidnapam (pronounced Tide-na-pom) Park (click here to read our review and see photos) situated on Riffe Lake, is owned by Tacoma Power, the power supplier for the city of Tacoma.  When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, it was less than a quarter full, most of the campers having left on Labor Day. 

It seemed like we spent hours picking out our site… too many choices!  We finally settled on a long, level site and set up camp.  Roof-mounted satellite TV dishes don’t work here, and we didn’t have a local NPR radio station, either.   Surrounded by tall pines, without our usual ties to the “outside world”, it felt like real camping (well, except for the full hookups and cell service!).

On Wednesday, we were off to see Mt. Rainier.  We haven’t been in that national park for five years, but had fond memories of the sunshine, the beautiful lakes and trails, and the lush gardens of wildflowers.  Yesterday, we had a repeat performance.

The good thing about visiting the park after Labor Day was the absence of huge crowds of people.  The bad thing was the road construction!  Highway 12, the road from I-5 over to Yakima and the main route to Mt. Rainier, had big electric signs announcing delays of up to 2 hours.  Fortunately, we turned off of highway 12 to Taidnapam Park before we tangled with the serious road construction.

distant waterfallThe main road into the park is closed, so the only access to Paradise, the most visited area of the park and home to the visitor center, is through the west entrance.  For us, that meant a drive north on highway 7, also undergoing (thankfully, minor) construction.  Once in the park, access to most of the eastern side was difficult (or impossible) – but our goal was Paradise (isn’t everyone's??) and we persisted.  We found a parking spot in the visitor center parking lot, ate our picnic lunch in the sunshine, watched the park’s overview video, and headed off up Deadhorse trail towards the glacier-covered mountain.

If I ever take a photography class, it will be “How to Photograph Lush Wildflower Gardens With Your Little Pocket Sized Digital Camera”.  Photographing the massive bulk of Mt. Rainier, shining (and melting) in the warm sunshine was easy.  Capturing the beauty of the multicolored, multilayered wildflower gardens was impossible (for me).  Small creeks burbled through moss and flowers; tiny waterfalls trickled down rock faces through hanging gardens.  We crossed crusty patches of snow now and then, and stopped frequently to exclaim at the incredible views of Mt. Rainier.

At the end of our trail. close enough to the glaciers to hear the sounds of distant ice chunks falling, we caught our breath and turned back.  Behind us, unseen as we huffed and puffed our way up the trail, snow covered Mt. Adams shimmered in the bright sunshine like a mirage in the far distance, another of the great volcanic cones of the Cascades (Mt. Adams is the second highest mountain in Washington; Mt. Rainier is the tallest).

Since I heard from so many readers about the layout my photographs from Astoria, I thought I’d also post the Mt. Rainier photos as an album – this time, in a slightly different format.  I like it.

22 comments:

  1. spectacular photos!..Mount Rainer was most photogenic today!!

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  2. Love the picture format. And the pictures - wow. I really don't like snow but as hot as it's been this summer, it looked pretty good.

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  3. Love your Mt. Rainier photos. We lived in Orting and I worked in Puyallup a few years back, I never tired of that Mt. Rainier view!

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  4. Mt. Rainier never fails to awe me, and the wildflowers are just icing on the humongous cake ! It is good you were able to get there and appreciate them.

    It is hard to get bad pictures of such amazing beauty, yours are wonderful.

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  5. WOW.....what wonderful photos! We plan on being there next year....I can't wait. Thanks for the sneak preview!

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  6. Great pictures -- I can't wait to get to the western half of this country!

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  7. You've done a good job with your mountain pictures, and you brought back great memories of our visit a few years ago. When we were there, we had come clouds which occasionally obscured the view, but more often, added some drama to our pictures. We agree, it is awfully hard to get a picture of a field of wildflowers that really captures the experience of being there. Bayfield Al takes care of that by zeroing in on one flower at a time.

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  8. Your pocket digital is doing a perfectly fine job, Laurie. Gorgeous. Seems as though all the fires are in Oregon, I didn't see a sign of smoke between Rainier and Adams. Love that view.

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  9. Love your post & photos today ~ we've visited Mt Rainier several times and it never fails to amaze me. LOVE it there...
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  10. Awesome pictures, Laurie- I've downloaded them so I can have them for my desktop pictures!
    Thanks!
    donna

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  11. Did Mt.Rainer and Mt. McKinley...both were breathtaking...

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  12. One of my favorite places - absolutely beautiful photos!

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  13. My kind of place, my kind of scenery:))

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  14. GORGEOUS pictures. We are headed that way next summer. Hope we are as Blessed as you two! We want to be able to see the MT. too. Enjoy the ride.

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  15. Eye Popping is right! Your little camera and its operator are doing just fine.

    Although, in my current condition, my first thought when I saw Odel on the snow/ice was BE CAREFUL!!

    I'm making my list from your travels for my NW trip when I get over this latest crack in my plans. :-)

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  16. Look at my beautiful back yard! Unfortunately us working folks don't get out much so that side of the state will have to wait. Thanks for giving me something to look forward to. Washington scenery is what made me move back...Cheers! ~M

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  17. Wowie-zowie! So THAT's what it's supposed to look like.

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  18. What wonderful pictures and I am enjoying your posts. We are going to try and start full timing and you are a wealth of knowledge. Just read the boondocking in Quartzite post and had to lol. But now I know how to conserve while showering and recycle my water several times over! Lots to learn.

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  19. Awesome shot! Loving the views on the blog :)
    Nina

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