Friday was our last day of fun before the McPherson Edmonsons had to head back to Kansas. We had been watching the weather all week to make sure we timed our trip to Mt. Rainier for the most perfect day possible, and boy, did we nail it!
We left the house Friday morning after breakfast. It is approximately a 3 hour drive from our house to the Paradise Lodge. We were going to head to the Lodge, have some lunch, and then follow Jared where ever he wanted to take us up the mountain.
Kristina was only mildly excited to go to Mt. Rainier, she thought that it was just going to be okay after a decently long drive. However, she was happily proven wrong. Everyone was super impressed with Rainier and the sights that go along with it.
It was a beautiful day at Rainier. We believe the temperature was in the mid to upper 70's. It was clear and sunny with an occasional breeze. We couldn't have asked for a better day. However, since it was a Friday, it was decently busy, but not too busy that we couldn't find a place to park. Here are some pictures of the valley near where we parked.
After parking we headed up towards the Lodge. Along with the Lodge, there is a visitors' center and a ranger station.
As we mentioned we had lunch at the Lodge. It wasn't the best lunch in the world, but it was okay. The Lodge was beautiful though; a typical Northwest Lodge with all of the niceties.
Once we finished lunch, we hit a gift shop in the Lodge and then headed back down to our cars to drop off our goods. There is no way we wanted to hike up the mountain with extra baggage. On our way back to the car, Maisie and Rhett had to seize their first opportunity to get in the snow. It is hard to believe that there is still snow so readily around in August. However, with all of the snow that we have been getting due to the La Nina weather pattern, the snow doesn't even completely melt before the next season hits.
Here we are at the base of the mountain getting ready to go UP. Jared wanted to hike to Glacier Vista; it was only 1.7 miles, but it was definitely up and we were going to work off our lunch we had just eaten.
The wildflowers were definitely in bloom on the mountain. There were so many of them that you could smell their sweet aroma as you hiked up. Here are some of the first ones we saw on the trail up.
Honestly, we are all catching our breath in this picture. We had all underestimated the amount of up, but we adjusted quickly.
A scenic group shot with Mt. Rainier in the background.
More wildflowers at the base of the mountain...
And look more snow. We didn't expect there to be so much snow on the trail, but we all made it without getting our bottoms wet (i.e., falling).
Another breather...
Da-Da and Rhett looking scenic on our way up.
Behind us as we were hiking up, you could clearly see Mount Adams and Mount Saint Helens. Mount Saint Helens is quite a ways in the distance, but you could definitely make it out.
A good view of Mt Rainier on the way up.
Da-Da and Stephanie posing for a portrait on the trail.
Kristina and Da-Da posing for a portrait. A little known fact is that Da-Da was always trying to get his sister to fall. Can you imagine? Kristina told him that we aren't kids anymore and that he could hurt her. He just laughed. Brothers and sisters...
Here's a picture of an avalanche off in the distance on our way up. We saw three of these, and the first one we heard it before we saw it. All of us thought it was a plane going overhead and then we saw the snow.
And here we are at our destination...
You could get a lot of really nice shots of the snow on the mountain.
This is a great picture of the river meandering through the valley.
And of course there are always waterfalls associated with melting snow.
A valley of wildflowers...you could smell them.
More pictures with Mt. Rainier.
On the way down, we saw this cute little guy. It was a marmot. Check out this page for more information on marmots. He/She was pretty cute and just looked at everyone as they snapped their photos.
Maisie posing on a big, flat rock. Kristina loves rocks like this!
After we got into the car, we were circling around the meadow (earlier pictures in the blog post), when Kristina spotted a black bear and two of cubs. It was a pretty cool sight to see.
We decided to drive through the park and exit out a different way that we came into the park. Here we are sitting along side the road goofing off and taking in the surroundings.
And then there's this picture...it pretty much sums up the trip! AWESOME!
