After many month, years in fact, of looking at it and taking photos of it the time had come to go to Mt Rainier. The weather had been fabulous for the last few days and so, with Sunday looking equally good, the decision was taken to head to the mountain. We thought it would take a couple of hours to get there so we set off quite early in the morning. We were going the scenic route to the mountain as it had been recommended to us. As we reached a small town called Black Diamond where the view was meant to be very impressive, the temperature sank into the low 60’s, the rain starting falling and the cloud covered everything and anything that could be considered a mountain.
I was relaxed about the situation though – it was bound to clear up – plus the boys were quiet in the back watching DVDs so they weren’t busy asking if we were there yet and where the mountain was! As we started heading east round the side of the mountain we saw our first patch of blue sky, then more and more until the clouds burnt away and we were in brilliant sunshine and blue skies – phew!
After a couple of hours and with our first glimpses of mountain in the bag we made our first stop by the side of White River. There was no clever meaning behind the name of river – the water was just white. It takes this color because it is full of flour particles from the glaciers high above. The whiter the river the healthier the glacier apparently. I’m not 100% sure why but it’s a fact!
Next it was time to cross the border into the national park itself and start the climb up to Sunrise. As beautiful as it was winding our way up the mountain side Tracy was not happy. I’m sure there were some stunning views but if my head started moving away from staring straight ahead I was told in no uncertain terms to look at the road! When I asked if it view was good tracy didn’t know because she wasn’t looking!! To be fair it was a pretty steep drop down the side and it need give us all the willies apart from the boys who were busy ignoring the stunning vistas and watching Spongebob Squarepants!
Eventually we made it to the relative safety of a car park. We were at just over 6,000 feet, not even half way up the mountain. We took a short walk around and checked out the alpine lakes in the valleys below, the top of Mt Rainier high above and far to the south the almost as impressive Mt Adams.
We didn’t stop for long here because the road went even higher but luckily on the final stretch the drops down the side were’t too bad so we could stop a few times for pictures – it was a bit like driving road Yosemite again, stopping for pictures round every corner just to get a slightly different angle of the mountain! The roadside verges were also full of beautiful flowers – I’ve no idea what they were but they provided a lovely splash of color. Unfortunately, there was a lack of bears and an abundance of mozzies! Biting little buggers! The moment we stepped out the car they were noshing on us!
After having a bit to eat at the end of the road – the highest point you can drive to – we set off back down the scary mountain road and round the bottom of the mountain towards Stevens Canyon and then onto Paradise. As we entered Stevens Canyon we stopped for a short hike down to the river and through the wood to thousand year old trees. The hike included a walk across a bouncy bridge which was probably one of the highlights for the boys!
Along Stevens Canyon, aside from more horrible narrow roads, wildflowers and no bears there were a couple of cracking views of the mountain including the view from Reflection Lake. If you get the timing right you get a perfect reflection of the mountain in the lake unfortunately we didn’t the timing quite right but it still looked pretty good nonetheless!
After leaving Reflection Lake we headed for our final stop of the day – Paradise. It was fairly chaotic here but we eventually found a parking spot and we decided to take the boys for a short hike to stretch their legs. Harry was wearing his new watch and set his stopwatch going and throughout the walk gave us updates on how long we’d been walking and how we needed to hurry up. Although not a bear we did see some wildlife on this walk with a few deer walking about having a much on the flowers. One thing we didn’t see all day was any eagles – I would have expected plenty of them up there – but there were none, probably because they knew I couldn’t cope with eagles and mountains all in one day.
With the walk complete, ice-creams eaten and wees taken it was time to get back in the car for the final part of the day, the drive home. Despite the best efforts of the satnav to take us the long route home we eventually got home at just after 8pm. It had been a long old day but the weather had turned out well and another place can be crossed off the list. The only down side to the day were the bites from those mozzies!
Here are all the pictures!